Author Name Formatter
Paste author names, one per line, in natural order (John Michael Smith) or already inverted (Smith, John Michael), and get each in the three forms a reference list needs: Smith, J. M. for APA 7, and Smith, John Michael for MLA 9 and Chicago 18. Suffixes such as Jr. and name particles such as van and de la stay with the right part of the name. Free, no sign-up, and nothing leaves your browser.
0 names — both "John Smith" and "Smith, John" forms are detected automatically
How APA joins multiple authors
Formatting each name is only half the job — APA also has strict rules for joining them in a reference-list entry:
- 2 authors: join with an ampersand — Smith, J. M., & Doe, J. A.
- 3 to 20 authors: list every author, comma-separated, with the ampersand before the last — Smith, J. M., Doe, J. A., & Lee, K.
- 21 or more authors: list the first 19, then an ellipsis, then the final author — no ampersand — Smith, J. M., Doe, J. A., ... Zhou, W.
Note that "et al." belongs to in-text citations (three or more authors are shortened to "Smith et al., 2024"), never to the reference list itself. MLA instead uses the word "and" before the final author and shortens 3+ authors to "et al." in the Works Cited entry.
How to Use the Author Name Formatter
- Paste your names. Type or paste one name per line. Natural order (Jane A. Doe) and inverted order (Doe, Jane A.) can be mixed in the same list.
- Press Format Names. Three blocks appear: APA (7th edition), MLA (9th edition) and Chicago (bibliography), with one line per name in the order you entered them.
- Copy a block. Each block has its own Copy button. Paste the names into your reference entry.
- Join the names. The tool formats each name on its own; it does not build the whole author string. The reminder under the results shows how APA joins two, three to twenty, and twenty-one or more authors.
How Each Style Writes a Name
| Name as typed | APA 7 | MLA 9 and Chicago 18 |
|---|---|---|
| John Michael Smith | Smith, J. M. | Smith, John Michael |
| Martin Luther King Jr. | King, M. L., Jr. | King, Martin Luther, Jr. |
| Jean-Michel Cousteau | Cousteau, J.-M. | Cousteau, Jean-Michel |
| Ana de la Cruz | de la Cruz, A. | de la Cruz, Ana |
| Ludwig van Beethoven | van Beethoven, L. | van Beethoven, Ludwig |
| J. K. Rowling | Rowling, J. K. | Rowling, J. K. |
Outputs are what the tool produces. MLA and Chicago give the same form for the first author, so their blocks are identical.
APA 7 reduces every given name to an initial with a period, keeps a hyphen between the initials of a hyphenated name, and puts a suffix after the initials, preceded by a comma. MLA 9 and Chicago 18 keep the full given names for the first author. For the second and later authors of an MLA or Chicago entry, the names go back to natural order — Smith, John Michael, and Jane Doe — so the tool’s inverted line is the form for the first author only.
Worked Example
Paste three lines: John Michael Smith, Doe, Jane A. and Ana de la Cruz. The tool reports 3 names formatted and gives, for APA, Smith, J. M. / Doe, J. A. / de la Cruz, A. For MLA and Chicago the lines are Smith, John Michael / Doe, Jane A. / de la Cruz, Ana. The APA entry for the three authors together then reads Smith, J. M., Doe, J. A., & de la Cruz, A. — a comma before the ampersand, as the reminder under the results shows.
Where Names Need Your Judgement
- Suffixes. Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Luther King, Jr. and King, Martin Luther, Jr. all give the same result. A suffix is read only when it is Jr., Sr., II, III, IV, V, 2nd, 3rd or 4th.
- Particles. Lowercase particles such as van, von, de, della and de la stay with the surname, giving van Beethoven, Ludwig. Chicago and MLA may alphabetize such a name under the main surname and write Beethoven, Ludwig van, depending on the person’s own practice, so check the manual for the name you have.
- Organizations. A group author such as World Health Organization is recognised from words such as Association, University, Institute, Department, Council or Company, or from an ampersand or a digit, and is kept as typed in all three styles. A group name without such a word, such as Greenpeace Japan, is read as a person; check the output for those.
- Titles and degrees. A leading Dr., Prof., Mr., Mrs., Ms. or Sir and a trailing PhD, MD or MBA are dropped, because APA, MLA and Chicago leave them out of a reference-list name: Dr. Jane Doe, PhD becomes Doe, J.
- Family-first names and compound surnames. In natural order the last word is taken as the surname, so Wang Xiaoming (family name first) and Gabriel García Márquez come out wrongly. Type those names in inverted form, with a comma.
- Initials after the surname. Vancouver-style names such as Smith JM are not read; use Smith, J. M.
Which Tool Do You Need?
- Format a list of author names: this page.
- Check a whole reference list for author-order and other slips: the APA Citation Checker or MLA Citation Checker.
- Decide how many authors to list or shorten to et al.: Et Al. Rules Calculator.
- Put finished entries in alphabetical order: Bibliography Alphabetizer or Sort Lines.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How does APA format author names?
- Surname first, then initials, each followed by a period: John Michael Smith becomes Smith, J. M. Hyphenated given names keep the hyphen between initials (J.-M.), and a suffix follows the initials after a comma: King, M. L., Jr. In a reference list, authors are separated by commas, with an ampersand before the last.
- How is MLA author formatting different from APA?
- MLA keeps the full given names instead of initials: Smith, John Michael. Only the first author is inverted; later authors stay in natural order and the last is joined with “and”: Smith, John Michael, and Jane Doe. With three or more authors MLA gives the first author followed by et al.
- Does Chicago format names like MLA?
- For the first author, yes: Last, First. Chicago also leaves later authors in natural order. Where it differs is in how many authors it lists: up to six in a bibliography, with the first three and et al. for seven or more.
- What happens to name particles like van or de la?
- Lowercase particles stay attached to the surname, so Ludwig van Beethoven becomes van Beethoven, L. in APA. How such names are alphabetized is a style question, so check the particle’s treatment in your style guide for names in your list.
- Can I paste names that are already in Last, First order?
- Yes. A comma tells the tool the surname comes first, so Smith, John Michael is read the same way as John Michael Smith, and the two forms can be mixed. A suffix after a second comma, as in King, Martin Luther, Jr., is also understood.
- Is my list of names uploaded anywhere?
- No. The names are formatted in your browser; nothing you type is sent to a server or stored.