Alphabetic Sorting of Noble Names
When sorting noble – as well as non-noble – names in alphabetic sequence, the eventual prepositions, as mentioned above, and the titles, in Germany forming part of the surname since 1919, are ignored. Also name elements which have developed from honorary functions, such as Schenk (short for Mundschenk ), are overlooked. Since the prepositions are not considered relevant when sorting, the prepositions are not capitalised unless they begin a sentence. In this the German language practice differs from Dutch in the Netherlands, where the particle van is usually capitalised when mentioned without preceding given names or initials, or from Dutch in Belgium, where the name particle Van is always capitalised. The above-mentioned exemplary Kasimir von der Recke is thus sorted as:
- Recke, Graf Kasimir von der (for people died before 1919), or
- Recke, Kasimir Graf von der (for people alive, or dead thereafter).
Read more about this topic: German Nobility
Famous quotes containing the words noble and/or names:
“O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s,eye, tongue, sword,
Th’ expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mold of form,
Th’ observed of all observers, quite, quite down!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“And even my sense of identity was wrapped in a namelessness often hard to penetrate, as we have just seen I think. And so on for all the other things which made merry with my senses. Yes, even then, when already all was fading, waves and particles, there could be no things but nameless things, no names but thingless names. I say that now, but after all what do I know now about then, now when the icy words hail down upon me, the icy meanings, and the world dies too, foully named.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)