Lookup data which is formatted different

Hi,

Is there any way to use a 'like' in a lookup?
I have 2 spreadsheets, where in the one a person's name is written as "Young, A.S" and in the other the name is written as "A. Young" (other variations are also possible).
The first has data I need to import into a database, the second holds the employeenumber, which I need to complete the first spreadsheet.

It concerns hundreds of records, we're doing it manually now, but it's a total pain
Would be great if we could at least filter out some of the records so we'd only have to check if both names belong to the same person.

I have no clue on vba.... guess we'll just have to go the manual path.