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