From: evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com   
      
   On 1/18/26 16:51, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:   
   > On Sat, 17 Jan 2026 19:45:42 -0500, Someone Else wrote:   
   >   
   >> How do you reasonably sort people's names if you don't know whether   
   >> the surname precedes or follows the given name?   
   >   
   > I like the French answer to this question: capitalize the family name   
   > (don’t call it “surname”), so you can spot it wherever it occurs:   
   >   
   >      Peter SELLERS   
   >      LUGOSI Bela   
   >      Marty FELDMAN   
   >      SAKAMOTO Ryuichi   
   >      CHOW Yun Fat   
   >      Michelle YEOH Choo Kheng   
      
   But in Iceland, there is no family name to capitalize. (If you're going   
   to complain about "surname", then "family name" is also a problem.)   
   Ditto for Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. There are probably others.   
      
   (And we won't even talk about "the artist formerly known as Prince".)   
      
   --   
   Evelyn C. Leeper, http://leepers.us/evelyn   
   Golden ages always shine more brightly from a distance. --Jack Shafer   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)