title: How do I count merged cells separately in Google Spreadsheets?
body: <p>I'm using <code>countif(a1:a10, "*")</code> to sum the number of names in a guest list. However, some cells have been merged, e.g. for married couples or families where only one name is supplied. </p>
  
  <p>See below for a concrete example, where <code>(+ x)</code> are merged with the cell above:</p>
  
  <pre><code>   |      A        |       B        |
  1  | Cheah         |  Teo           |
  2  | Hadi's Family |  Robinson      |
  3  |  (+ wife)     |  Müller        |
  4  |  (+ son)      |  Chan          |
  5  | Ganesan       |  Yeong         |
  6  | Chng          |   (+ wife)     |
  7  | Tan           |  Ng            |
  8  | Williams      |   (+ husband)  |
  9  | Brecht        |   (+ daughter) |
  10 | Ahmad         |                |
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In the example above, I would like to obtain 10 in column A and 9 in column B.</p>
  
  <p>I've seen @MaxMakhrov's suggestion of last non-empty row, but haven't been able to get a working solution out of it yet.</p>
  
  <p>Any ideas?</p>