[AccessD] (OT) Propercase update for last names

DJK(John) Robinson djkr at msn.com
Tue Oct 14 19:25:25 CDT 2003


I actually did some research on this a long time ago (>35 years) in
preparation for the computer typesetting of the British telephone
directories.  Some particular things I do recall - at least in British usage
- are:

- 'Mc' is *always* followed by a capital, but 'Mac' is *not*:  both
Macdonald and MacDonald are common, for instance.
- I think that an apostrophe was always followed by a capital.
- Likewise the letter after a hyphen.
- The letter before an apostrophe was most commonly capital 'O' of course,
but lowercase 'd' also occurred;  there are others, too, normally capitals.
- It's 'van' if you're from Belgium, but 'Van' from Holland - unless I've
forgotten and it's the opposite!

There were other rules too, but perhaps the most important one was that many
of the rules had exceptions.  There are even some surnames (very few) that
don't begin with a capital at all.

The most important part of my program was probably the human override
button.  ;->

HTH.  I hope you find a good compromise solution.

John  


> -----Original Message-----
> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com 
> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of 
> Oleg_123 at xuppa.com
> Sent: 14 October 2003 17:41
> To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
> Subject: [AccessD] (OT) Propercase update for last names
> 
> 
> Hey Group,
> I run a propercase update for last names excluding following 
> formats McDonald, MacDonald (second or third letter after Mc 
> or Mac respectively) O'Hara, (first letter after apostrophe 
> if first letter in word is "O")
> 
>  (I am not sure whats the case with d' like D'Umberville)
> I think Von is always capital, la is always lowercase, and 
> "de" varies. Am I missing anything ?
> 
> 
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