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Capitalisation of Surnames?



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Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:17 pm
phantazma says...



Firstly, sorry if I've put this in the wrong forum; I'm still new, don't hurt me!

But, recently I've started writing again and all but one of my characters are Italian so, of course, they have Italian surnames. However, the capitalisation of some of said surnames is giving me a bit of bother. I have two surnames written in the run of the name "di Bruno" and "de Bardi" but I'm completely stumped as to how to write these names when they are at the beginning of a sentence (I call them by their surnames due to their jobs). Do I capitalise the Ds or leave them lower case?

Thanks!
"Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever." - Napoleon Bonaparte
  





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Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:44 pm
Rosendorn says...



I'd follow proper grammar rules, just so people realize it actually is the start of a sentence. Capitalization at the start of sentences is one of those things that's so expected, breaking the naming convention is acceptable in my mind.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

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Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:56 pm
phantazma says...



Alright, thanks, Rosey Unicorn!

I ended up renaming di Bruno a little while back so that his D was a capital but I'll switch it back now and just capitalise it anyway.

Thanks again!
"Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever." - Napoleon Bonaparte
  








It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats—the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill —The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it—and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another.
— JRR Tolkien