Talk:Margaret Osborne duPont

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[edit] Capitalization

In addition to the need to capitalize the initial letter of a sentence, I was already aware that in some languages, it is normal practice to capitalize the first letter of a name such as "duPont" whenever it appears without a name.

I see that this is also the rule for English usage, as expressed in the U.S. Government Printing Office Manual of Style pdf or html versions:

Particles in names of persons

3.13. In foreign names such particles as d’, da, de, della, den, du, van, and von are capitalized unless preceded by a forename or title. Individual usage, if ascertainable, should be followed.

Da Ponte; Cardinal da Ponte
Den Uyl; Johannes den Uyl; Prime Minister den Uyl
Du Pont; E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.
Van Rensselaer; Stephen van Rensselaer
Von Braun; Wernher von Braun
but d’Orbigny; Alcide d’Orbigny; de la Madrid; Miguel de la Madrid

3.14. In anglicized names such particles are usually capitalized, even if preceded by a forename or title, but individual usage, if ascertainable, should be followed.

Justice Van Devanter; Reginald De Koven
Thomas De Quincey; William De Morgan
Henry van Dyke (his usage)
Samuel F. Du Pont (his usage); Irénée du Pont

Do any English-language style guides go the other way for use within a sentence, keeping it lowercase even if used without a first name? Gene Nygaard 07:29, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for finding this. No, I am not aware of any English language style guides that mandates "duPont" when it is the first word of a sentence. However, I think it is borderline disrespectful to capitalize someone's name if their preference is for it not to be capitalized. And so far, we have no evidence that Margaret Osborne duPont is OK with capitalizing her last name when it is the first word of a sentence. Tennis expert 11:10, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
No, you don't understand. What I was asking is if there is any style guide which says it would even be permissible to say something like "Clapp and duPont teamed up to win 20 Grand Slam women's doubles titles". Or, do they all say—as the GPO Style Manual very clearly does—it should be " "Clapp and DuPont teamed up to win 20 Grand Slam women's doubles titles" when that name is not preceded by a first name or title?
Note also that if it wouldn't be capitalized as the first word of a sentence, there couldn't possibly be any issue as to whether or not to capitalize it in the middle of a sentence. Gene Nygaard 14:21, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 11:02, 10 November 2007 (UTC)