Don't. The 'von' is definitely part of the last name. --
Yooden
When adding people with German surnames beginning with von, put them under the letter for the main part of their name; i.e. Otto von Bismarck goes under B, not V. You probably should also write Bismarck, Otto von rather than von Bismarck, Otto. --
Simon J Kissane
and I don't know WHAT the information technologist position (they used to be librarians. *sigh*) is on VON and VAN and such. von Bismarck, Otto; Bismarck, Otto von; cross-references?
This discussion whether the page with this biographical listing is at all needed just supports the importance of metadata system. With the metadata system this kind of pages would be generated automatically saving all the manual page creation process.
Just one word of metadata "biography" will make it work like a charm.
No more error-prone,mundane and incomplete listings.
Kpjas
- Agreed. I'd love to see such a system put into place. -- STG
Regarding Jesus Christ: I think he should be alphabetized under 'J', just like
Alexander the Great should be under the 'A', Scipio
? (often called Scipio Africanus) under 'S' and [Richard Lionheart]
? under 'R'. Although I must admit that there are some less clear-cut cases:
Julius Caesar should probably be under J, but is often put under C (Julius is his family name), while
Napoleon is often put under N although his family name was Bonaparte. --
Andre Engels
I think this page serves as a meta-page, like
Wikipedia FAQ and
Recent Changes: it's a page more
about Wikipedia than an entry within it. Coupled with a page chronicling advances in society, it might eventually serve as an alternative category scheme. Just some thoughts. --KQ
To close the 'von'-issue: I have spoken to a bookseller and she said in bibliography it's 'Bismarck, Otto von' if the 'von' is in small caps, but 'Le Carré, John' otherwise.
Note that this is
bibliography, but it's good enough for me.
This rule for German "von" does not apply to the Dutch "van" or "van der" - the latter is not a mark of nobility. To complicate matters further, there are (Low?) German names like Ludwig VAN Beethoven. -
clasqm