# Excel range name rules?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-range-name-rules/238054>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 3, 2004, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-range-name-rules/238054 "2004-04-03T14:29:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-range-name-rules/238054/1 "2004-04-03T14:29:38Z")

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I am using Excel 2003 and tried to create a range name called

R5\_Prop\_util\_lookup

I am getting the error that this is an invalid name. I can’t figure out why. Excel help does not provide the naming rules anywhere I can find. Anybody know?

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**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-range-name-rules/238054/2 "2004-04-03T14:48:11Z")

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Lose the apparent cell reference at the start of the name,

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**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-range-name-rules/238054/3 "2004-04-03T14:50:28Z")

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Maybe it doesn’t like the “R5” since it’s also the name of a cell?

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**Author:** ![Tokyo\_Mann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@Tokyo\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tokyo_Mann)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-range-name-rules/238054/4 "2004-04-03T14:56:50Z")

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> [@CookingWithGas](#):
>
> I am using Excel 2003 and tried to create a range name called
> 
> R5\_Prop\_util\_lookup
> 
> I am getting the error that this is an invalid name. I can’t figure out why. Excel help does not provide the naming rules anywhere I can find. Anybody know?

This is cool. I had never known this, but playing arround with it, the answer is that Excel won’t let you name anything which would be a valid cell address. The problem is the R5. This can be seen by trying to name something A65536, which it won’t accept, but A65537, which is not a valid cell address, is acceptable. Rename it to RR5\_Prop\_util\_lookup and it will work.

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**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-range-name-rules/238054/5 "2004-04-03T15:50:44Z")

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Excel does provide guidelines for naming. Go to Help, and under Index enter ‘name’ as the keyword. You should see a topic ‘Guidelines for naming cells, formulas, and contants in Microsoft Excel’. You can also get to this topic by using ‘guideline’ as the keyword.