Dutch family names that contain "van"

Hello,

In Chicago Style 17th edition, when a last name that contains "van" follows a first name, the "v" in "van" should be lowercase, as in "John van Gelder." However, when the surname appears alone (in subsequent citations), it should start with a capital "V," as in "Van Gelder."

Currently, I have the "V" in the surname is always capitalized in my citations to ensure that it is correct for subsequent citations, however, that makes the frist citation "John van Gelder", which is incorrect. I want Zotero to capitalize "van" only in subsequent citations.

How can I adjust this in Zotero?
  • Just to confirm, have you tried entering the items with van in lowercase? My memory is that Zotero’s citation processor automatically handles this.
  • @bwiernik
    No, I had to do them manually. However, since names that contain "van" are not common in my field, it was not really a problem.
  • Is there a solution to this?
  • @rhwork
    it's more complicated than this. In Flanders, which is also Dutch speaking, the Van in family names is always with capital letters. "John Van Gelder" or "Van Gelder, John" would be spelled the same.
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