Re: Handling caps for surnames with capitals in the middle (was: Irish Surnames)

[mr_mischief]

My name is consistently anti-corrected in spelling. It is very, very annoying and actually quite offensive and somewhat angering to have someone try to change not only my name but also the country and time of my family's roots. I know how to spell my name. If your receptionist, your spell checker, your billing department, your court clerk, or anyone else decides to tell you to contact Christopher Smith, I am quite likely to give you the response that I am not Christopher Smith. If I'm in a friendly mood that day, I may point out that my name is Stith.

There's a big difference between an modern English name from the late 1400's and a Welsh name from well before that which was taken by someone emigrating from the Black Sea area. There is similarly a big difference among MacGwire, MacGuire, Maguire, etc. The same thing I'm sure is true for names from places besides western Europe.

If you don't know how to format a name, how to spell it, or whether or not it is mistyped, it should only be stored as provided by the user. Anything else is a raw insult to someone's family and heritage.

Christopher E. Stith
Do not try to debug the program, for that is impossible. Instead, try only to realize the truth. There is no bug. Then you will find that it is not the program that bends, but only the documentation.