Tutorial: How to use my name
My French name can cause certain troubles due to its length and non-conformance to
common beliefs about names, so let me explain how to parse it and quote it when necessary.
Common use cases
In an email:
Dear Dr. de Carnavalet...
In a paper:
Carnavalet et al. showed that...
as shown by Carnavalet et al.
Summary
Pronunciation (IPA)
\ɡza.vje dø kaʁ.ne dø kaʁ.na.va.le\
Explanations
My name is:
Xavier de Carné de Carnavalet
from which the first name is:
Xavier
and the last name is:
de Carné de Carnavalet
that you might also see contracted as:
de Carné-Carnavalet
(yes, my last name starts with a lowercase, read the article from the link in my first sentence if you don't trust me)
which can be divided as a first part:
de Carné
and second/last part:
de Carnavalet
These two tricky "de" are called particles (similar to van, von, etc.) and there are certain rules that apply when using such name in a sentence.
There are two general rules you should be aware of:
- Both "de" always need to be written in lowercase (or small caps if necessary). I am NOT Robert De Niro.
- The lowercase rule is different than the Dutch prefix "van" that can be capitalized in certain circumstances.
- There is an accented letter in my name, "é". Copy and reuse this character or use é in HTML, \'{e} in LaTeX, Alt+0233 in Windows, it is 0xE9 in Latin 1 or 0xC3A9 in UTF-8.
The uppercase version, "É", is É in HTML, \'{E} in LaTeX, Alt+0201 in Windows, it is 0xC9 in Latin 1 or 0xC389 in UTF-8.
- Simple text examples:
Xavier de Carné de Carnavalet is a researcher at ... University...
Author: Xavier de CARNÉ de CARNAVALET
- Eventually, the last name "should" be alphabetically sorted under "C" and not "D" (ignoring the first "de"), although I'm often transfered at the end of a list because someone used case-sensitive sorting... so I'm happy under "D".
- Simple listing examples:
Carné de Carnavalet, Xavier de
Carné de Carnavalet (de), Xavier
Below are the specific rules you may be searching for:
-
Quoting the full name
No problem here, just use the full name.
- HTML example:
<html>Xavier de Carné de Carnavalet is a researcher...</html>
- BibTeX examples:
author = {Xavier de Carn\'{e} de Carnavalet}
author = {de Carn\'{e} de Carnavalet, X. and ...}
- BibTeX trick for some journals (when \cite outputs [Name] instead of [1]):
author = {Carnavalet, Xavier de Carn\'{e} de and ...}
Note: This will also sort the name in a correct alphabetic order (under "C" instead of "D")
-
Quoting the last name only, including a title
When quoting the last name with a title (mister, Mr, etc.), just use the last name.
-
Quoting the last name only, without title
When quoting the last name alone, you drop the first "de".