How to find most and second most common entry from alpha list

Joah,

Ah, I see. Attached is version 2, with corrected formulas for both methods to prevent that when there are exactly the same number of an entry.

Method 1 (no values), in cell D3 and copied down:

=INDEX($A$3:$A$8,MATCH(1,INDEX((COUNTIF($A$3:$A$8,$A$3:$A$8)=LARGE(INDEX(COUNTIF($A$3:$A$8,$A$3:$A$8),),1+SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF($A$3:$A$8,$D$2:D2))))*(COUNTIF($D$2:D2,$A$3:$A$8)=0),),0))

Method 2 (with values), in cell J3 and copied down:

=INDEX($F$3:$F$8,MATCH(1,INDEX((SUMIF($F$3:$F$8,$F$3:$F$8,$G$3:$G$8)=LARGE(INDEX(SUMIF($F$3:$F$8,$F$3:$F$8,$G$3:$G$8),),1+SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF($F$3:$F$8,$J$2:J2))))*(COUNTIF($J$2:J2,$F$3:$F$8)=0),),0))

The reference to $d$2:d2 is there to advance to the next nth item in the list. It doesn't have to be a blank cell in D2, it could be a header, or any text you'd like. The reference grows as the formula is copied down. So in cell D4, that reference becomes $d$2:d3. Again, this is solely to advance to the next nth item.