[uf-discuss] hcard: additional additional names

[Tantek Çelik]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 7:48 AM, Martin McEvoy <martin at weborganics.co.uk> wrote:
> Hello Michael
>
> Michael Smethurst wrote:
>>
>> On 14/8/08 12:32, "Brian Suda" <brian.suda at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> 2008/8/14, Michael Smethurst <Michael.Smethurst at bbc.co.uk>:
>>>>
>>>>  <span class="family-name-prefix">van</span>
...
>>
>> I've asked around and the label "Onomastic prefix" has been suggested:
>>
>> http://www.listservicedirect.com/ethnic_religious.html
>>
>> But again it doesn't seem to differentiate between attached and detached
>> prefixes
>>
>> So I'll stick with family-name-prefix for now (it's easier to spell for
>> one)
>> unless anyone has a better idea
>>
>
> *family-name-preposition*  is probably more accurate to what you are trying
> to describe "von" in dutch simply means "of" or "from", "O" as in
> "O'Donnell",  in Irish  means  "descendant of" or  "grandson of" (in Gaelic
> Ua),  Mc and Mac are again Irish meaning "son of",  and "Fitz" as in
> "FitzGerald"  is an Irish hash of the french "fils de" which also means "son
> of". What I am trying to say is any of these prefixes simply mean "of" and
> shouldn't really be considered part of their family name although they
> mostly are,  think "Van Gough" would you know who I meant if  I just said
> "Gough"?
>
>
> Best wishes
>
> Martin McEvoy

Jim O'Donnell (and others),

This is the most knowledgable discussion I've seen yet of any
extension / decomposition of family-name.

As we're not (currently) adding any properties to hCard beyond what is
in vCard, there isn't a format solution for this.

However, we are *documenting* possible extensions to vCard properties
here in the hopes that suggestions with sufficient merit may make it
into an update of vCard (which we could then add to hCard) :

http://microformats.org/wiki/vcard-suggestions

I encourage you to add your suggestion of a family-name prefix or
preposition etc. to that page, perhaps in the new sub-properties
section:

http://microformats.org/wiki/vcard-suggestions#Suggestions_for_New_Sub-properties

In the meantime, the POSH approach is a good one.

Thanks,

Tantek