How to Format a CSV for Google Contacts Import

Google Contacts has strict expectations about CSV column names. If you try to import a CSV that was exported from your CRM, built in Excel, or came from another source, you will almost certainly need to rename some columns before it works.

The required column headers for Google Contacts are specific: "Given Name" (not "First Name"), "Family Name" (not "Last Name"), "E-mail 1 - Value" (not "Email"), "Phone 1 - Value" (not "Phone"). One wrong header and the field imports blank or into the wrong place.

This guide covers exactly which columns Google Contacts expects, how to rename your CSV columns quickly without opening Excel, and how to handle the common problems like combined name fields.

The Column Names Google Contacts Expects

Google Contacts uses its own naming convention. Here are the most commonly used columns and their exact required headers:

What your CSV probably has	What Google Contacts expects
First Name / fname	Given Name
Last Name / lname	Family Name
Email / email_address	E-mail 1 - Value
Email Type	E-mail 1 - Type
Phone / phone_number	Phone 1 - Value
Phone Type	Phone 1 - Type
Company / organization	Organization 1 - Name
Job Title	Organization 1 - Title
Notes / memo	Notes
Street Address	Address 1 - Street
City	Address 1 - City
State	Address 1 - Region
ZIP / Postal Code	Address 1 - Postal Code
Country	Address 1 - Country

Google is case-sensitive on these headers — "given name" (lowercase) does not work. Type them exactly as shown.

How to Rename Your Columns to the Google Format

Open the CSV Column Mapper. Drop your CSV file or paste the data. You will see each column listed with its original header and a text field on the right where you type the new name.

Go through each column and rename it to the corresponding Google Contacts header from the table above. You only need to include columns you want to import — delete any columns that Google Contacts does not support or that you do not want in your contacts (source system IDs, internal notes, custom fields that will not map).

After renaming, click Preview to verify the first 10 rows look correct with the new headers. Then download the CSV. Open Google Contacts, go to Import (under the three-dot menu or Settings), and upload your file. Google will show a preview of what it found — if the column names matched, every field shows a recognized label.

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When Your CSV Has a "Full Name" Column

Google Contacts does not have a single "Full Name" column for import — it uses "Given Name" and "Family Name" separately. If your source CSV has a combined name field, you need to split it first.

In the CSV Column Mapper:

1. Select "Split column" from the Actions dropdown.
2. Choose your name column ("Full Name", "Name", "Contact Name", whatever it is called).
3. Set the delimiter to a space.
4. Name the first output column "Given Name" and the second "Family Name".
5. Click Apply.

The split puts the first word into "Given Name" and everything after the first space into "Family Name". For most Western names, this gives you correct first/last splits. For "Mary Jo Smith", you get "Mary" and "Jo Smith" — which is technically wrong but will at least import correctly structured.

For very important contact lists where name accuracy matters, review the split results in the Preview before downloading. You can catch "Dr. Sarah Lee" (splits to "Dr." / "Sarah Lee") or "Company Name Here" (which is not a person name at all and should probably be in the Organization column instead).

Importing Multiple Emails or Phone Numbers

Google Contacts supports multiple email addresses and phone numbers per contact. The column naming pattern is numbered:

• E-mail 1 - Value, E-mail 1 - Type, E-mail 2 - Value, E-mail 2 - Type
• Phone 1 - Value, Phone 1 - Type, Phone 2 - Value, Phone 2 - Type

The "Type" columns accept labels like "Work", "Home", "Mobile". If your source CSV has separate "Work Email" and "Personal Email" columns, rename them to "E-mail 1 - Value" and "E-mail 2 - Value" and add "E-mail 1 - Type" and "E-mail 2 - Type" columns with the values "Work" and "Home".

You do not need to add type columns if you only have one email/phone and do not care about the label. Google will import it as the primary contact method without a type label.

Test With a Small Sample Before Importing Your Full List

Before you import 5,000 contacts, test with 5. Keep the first header row and any 4-5 data rows, save that as a test CSV, and import it into Google Contacts first. Check that each field landed in the right place.

What to verify:

• Names are split into first/last correctly
• Email addresses imported to the Email field (not a Notes field)
• Phone numbers imported correctly (not reformatted or truncated)
• Company names show in the Organization field

Google Contacts will show a preview screen during import that lets you see the field mapping before confirming. If something looks wrong there, cancel, fix the column name in your CSV, and re-upload.

If your CSV has other data quality issues — duplicate contacts, invalid email formats, inconsistent phone number formatting — clean those first with the CSV Deduplicator and CSV Sanitizer before importing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Google Contacts require columns to be in a specific order?

No. Google Contacts matches columns by header name, not position. As long as your headers match the expected names exactly (with correct capitalization), the column order does not matter.

What happens to columns that do not match any Google Contacts field?

Google Contacts will either ignore them or offer to map them to a custom field during the import preview step. Removing unmapped columns from your CSV before importing keeps things clean.

My contacts are currently in Outlook. Can I convert that export for Google?

Outlook exports use different column names — see the Outlook contacts guide for the header mapping. For Outlook-to-Google migrations, you rename all Outlook headers to their Google equivalents using the mapper, then import the result into Google Contacts.

Can I import custom contact fields into Google Contacts?

Google Contacts supports a limited set of standard fields for CSV import. Custom fields are not importable via CSV. You would need to use the Google Contacts API or a third-party sync tool for custom field imports.