Author Name Formatter
Paste author names — one per line, in natural order or already inverted — and get the correct APA, MLA, and Chicago reference-list form for each, with suffixes, particles, and hyphenated names handled.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How does APA format author names?
- APA inverts every author's name and reduces given names to initials: John Michael Smith becomes Smith, J. M. Each initial is followed by a period, and hyphenated given names keep the hyphen between initials (J.-M.).
- How is MLA author formatting different from APA?
- MLA keeps the full given name instead of initials: John Michael Smith becomes Smith, John Michael. Only the first author in a multi-author MLA entry is inverted — later authors stay in natural order.
- What happens to name particles like van or de la?
- Lowercase particles such as van, von, de, della, and de la are kept with the last name, so Ludwig van Beethoven becomes van Beethoven, L. in APA and van Beethoven, Ludwig in MLA and Chicago.
- How are suffixes like Jr. and III handled?
- Suffixes are moved after the given names, separated by a comma: Martin Luther King Jr. becomes King, M. L., Jr. in APA and King, Martin Luther, Jr. in MLA and Chicago.
- Can I paste names that are already in Last, First order?
- Yes. The tool auto-detects the comma form — Smith, John Michael is parsed the same way as John Michael Smith — so you can mix both forms in one list.
- Is my list of names uploaded anywhere?
- No. All formatting happens locally in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server or stored.