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But de, la, von, zu, and af are not themselves distinct last names. If fact it would be reasonable to assume there is case-sensitive logic in said fictitious computer system to determine what the last name is.

The following mostly-identical names read very differently:

- Sarah Anne Jones Smith - Sarah Anne Jones-Smith - Sarah Jones Smith - Sarah Jones-Smith



What about names like Sarah Saint John or Sarah Saint Clair? And I'm not sure the abbreviated versions (with St.) are any easier to deal with.

Or how about Joran van der Sloot?


I don't have much of any experience with Dutch names, is "van der Sloot" the entire last name?

My example was meant to be "the final word and all preceeding lowercase words are considered the last name."


That wouldn't work on my name, because in my case the 'Van' is capitalized.




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