Searching names with inconsistent formatting - vba

Question

I built a sub that iterates over a sheet of business transactions for the day and addresses and attaches PDF receipts for our customers. Some customers work for the same firm, but are treated as different entities so they each receive their own email receipts. Folks from this particular firm are only identifiable as a team by their email handle, which is how I have been matching what receipts go to which email handles for which individuals.
Problem:
The problem I've encountered is that in the contacts master list (holds all of the contact information) the names are listed as first name then last name (I.E. John Snow) and on the occasion one of the external systems that information is pulled from lists the names as Last name then first name (Snow John), which isn't found by my current code. I know I could probably use InStr but to me that's a bit sloppy and the information contained in these receipts are extremely confidential. I'm struggling to come up with an consistent way to find the name regardless in a neat and eloquent way.
Possible solution I thought of was to split the names and store them into an array and then compare the different index places, but that seems inefficient. Any thoughts?
Current Code that is insufficient Note: This is only a small function from the main routine
Private Function IsEmpSameFirm(empName As String, firmEmail As String, firmName As String) As Boolean
'Finds separate employee email and compares to current email to find if same distribution
Dim empFinder As Range, firmFinder As Range
Dim columnCounter As Long
columnCounter = 1
While firmFinder Is Nothing
Set firmFinder = contactsMaster.Columns(columnCounter).Find(firmName)
columnCounter = columnCounter + 1
Wend
Set empFinder = contactsMaster.Rows(firmFinder.Row).Find(empName)
If empFinder Is Nothing Then
IsEmpSameFirm = False
ElseIf empFinder.Offset(0, 1).Value = firmEmail Then
IsEmpSameFirm = True
Else
IsEmpSameFirm = False
End If
End Function

Answer 1

Short answer: It is not possible
Middle answer: This implies a reasoning:
- You loop through your memories to recall which of the 2 gaven "Strings" is a name and which one is a last name. If you wish the PC to do the same, you'd need to "teach" it that -write a DataBase which contains every last name you know and if it's found there then it's a last name-
Long Answer:
What I'd do is split the text in columns, do a filter for each one and then analyze them "manually", this function may help you to split the string
Function RetriveText(InString As String, ChrToDivide, Position As Long)
On Error GoTo Err01RetriveText
RetriveText = Trim(Split(InString, ChrToDivide)(Position - 1))
If 1 = 2 Then '99 If error
Err01RetriveText: RetriveText = "Position " & Position & " is not found in the text " & InString
End If '99 If error
End Function
IE:
A1 =John Smith
B1 =RetriveText(A1," ",1) 'Result: John
C1 =RetriveText(A1," ",2) 'Result: Smith
Edit: Just realized that you are trying to send by email, are they contacts in Outlook? If so, why not to check them there? Try this function
Public Function ResolveDisplayName(sFromName) As Boolean
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Procedure : ResolveDisplayNameToSMTP
' Author : Sue Mosher - updated by D.Bartrup-Cook to work in Excel late binding.
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dim olApp As Object 'Outlook.Application
Dim oRecip As Object 'Outlook.Recipient
Dim oEU As Object 'Outlook.ExchangeUser
Dim oEDL As Object 'Outlook.ExchangeDistributionList
Set olApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set oRecip = olApp.Session.CreateRecipient(sFromName)
oRecip.Resolve
If oRecip.Resolved Then
ResolveDisplayName = True
Else
ResolveDisplayName = False
End If
End Function