Sum column if one condition is met

[bmunoz64]

I have two columns
Column A
John - 001
John - 002
Mary - 506
Mark - 883
MaryAnn - 789

Colum B
4
5
3
5
3

I would like a formula that adds up the numbers from Column B across all the same names (with no - number)

End result should be:
John 9
Mary 3
Mark 5
MaryAnn 3

What's the formula?

[NBVC]

=SUMIF(A:A,X1&"*",B:B)

where X1 contains the first name to match up

copied down

[bmunoz64]

=SUMIF(A:A,X1&"*",B:B)

where X1 contains the first name to match up

copied down

the formula is very nice but the list of names is dynamic so changing all the time. I was thinking of maybe using a LEFT formula instead of the X1 you mentioned but it does not work.

[NBVC]

A:A and B:B account for the whole column... so if the original list is dynamic, then it works always... I am not sure what you mean by using the LEFT() function instead.. how would that improve it?