Talk:Johannes Diderik van der Waals

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Moved from main page: Edit by Melanie Van der Waals - Great, great, great granddaughter. It is a common misconception to spell the surname with a small v. The surname means Family by the river Waals.

Actually according to dutch convention (and he was a dutch man) the V is capitalized only when it is the first letter. I.e. you'd say "Van de Waals said ..." but also "Johannes van der Waals said ..." (cf. the Nobel biography). Very cool that someone who traces heritage to the man helps build the article though, all input is very much appreciated :) Beck 15:42, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

My understanding is that the two forms are variously adopted by different families. When van is all lowercase I understand it is kind of particle, and not stricly part of the surname. When Van is capitalised, I understand it is considered integral to the surname. In some cases this goes an extra step and the words are contracted to a single surname (like 'Vanderwaals'). The Dutch page has 'van', and I'd hope they got it right!

128.250.204.118 04:26, 30 January 2007 (UTC)