Talk:Freddie van Mierlo

On the 'van'
I don't know whether the 'van' part of the name should be capitalised or not. I've seen sources using both forms, indeed of the three sources currently (at the time of writing) cited, one renders it as 'Van', two as 'van'. The two are the county and district councils where he is a member, so I'm assuming they would know how to write it, given that they can simply ask him, but I'm not sure. This issue is covered in Van_(Dutch), but it doesn't make it very clear what the British convention might be, if there is such a thing.

On a related but separate point, whether the v/Van is used for sorting apparently also differs, mainly between the Dutch practice (where it's not, ie. van Mierlo would be sorted as 'M') and the Belgian (where it is). Does Wikipedia have an overriding policy on this, or is it decided on case-by-case basis (and if so, how)? This has bearing on the defsort key, obvs.

Any ideas? -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 08:53, 5 July 2024 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the suggestion, . The Parliament website does indeed sort the name as 'V', and also spells the 'Van' with a capital V. I guess we can consider that authoritative, at least until someone proves otherwise. -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 16:31, 6 July 2024 (UTC)
 * I'm not at all sure whether it's "V" (as in UK Parliament) or "v" (as in his LinkedIn, his company page, his Lib Dem page). Hmm, the more I look, the more I begin to think "van" is right for us to use, as the most common English form of his name. I think I'll move it.
 * Done, with redirects from Freddie Van and Frederick Van/van. The other 3 at Van Mierlo surname page all use "van".  Pam  D  22:35, 6 July 2024 (UTC)