Is "van" Capitalized or What?

IS "van" CAPITALIZED OR WHAT?

The right answer is probably no. "Van" means "from" and was not capitalized on the original contract between van Rensselaer and Lubbert Gysbertsen van Blaricum. However, in the United States and Canada, we like to capitalize last names. Hence, the "V" tends to get capitalized more often than not. It is interesting that the van Blaricums hailing from Holland tend to use the lower case.

Revised: June 03, 2000