It has been...shall we say...interesting having a name that begins with a small "de". Luckily we have a large French influence here so people aren't too weirded out by it. But go outside the safety of New Hampshire and most people don't know what to do... cross out the big "D" they just wrote even though you said "small" "de"...they hesitate, look at you for assurance and wait for more instruction. Or how about trying to figure out where to alphabetize it. Does de Moulpied go under "d" or "m"?
I can see the temptation of changing the small "d" to capital as in Demouilpied. And then there is the decision to make the "m" small. For me, I am glad I kept my name original, at least how it came to me.
Now comes the other problem. Do you put a space in between the "de" and "M" as in de Mouilpied? Or not? I can tell you the original, way back on the Mother island, is with the space separating the "de" from the "M". This list of names from a book about island life in the late 1800's has many "de" names, http://history.foote-family.com/hugo/hugod.htm This should not be confused with Victor Hugo who was actually exiled on Guernsey around the same time.
I haven't made that big of a deal about the space. I suppose I do use the space, but I don't make an issue out of it. (the small "d" on the other hand I do fuss a bit about) As you can see in the blog, there are inconsistencies about the space - it's my way of making everyone feel welcomed!
So do you capitalize the "d"? Do you have "the space"?
No comments:
Post a Comment