Forum Discussion
Cell reference in formulas
I don't KNOW the answer to your question. I do know what I'd do if I had the question: I'd experiment. Try it out, see if it works. If it does (or, for that matter, if it doesn't) you have your answer.
But I'd also suggest another question for you to consider. Here's what you've written:
I want [to] use the data (ex: Barbara) in the top cell of my new spreadsheet as the name in a named range in the original table, using the XLOOKUP formula below it. Can I use the word "Barbara" in that top cell as the "name of a range" part of a reference?
Unless there's some compelling reason to use that word in both places, which doesn't appear to be the case, I'd advise against it just to avoid confusion, and that would be my advice even if your experiment (you are going to run that test, aren't you?) shows it could work. It's just not a good idea, because formulas would end up referring to column heading and named range with the same word.
UNLESS what you're talking about is using that name (from the header row of the table) in a formula where it's referring to that whole column or some filtered or criteria-based-selection (e.g., via XMATCH), and then you're not using it as you would any other column heading. I am just adding this paragraph to my original answer because it occurred to me that you may have been asking about something that I take for granted... referring to table headings in formulas, which is entirely doable. But don't use the same name for a named range that isn't the same as the column itself; that just would not make sense.
There are plenty of other names around. How about "Babs" for one of those spots?