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Some people have mixed upper and lower case letters (informally, CamelCase) in their names. This can appear in their first name (e.g. LeBron James), last name (e.g. Tracy McGrady), or both (e.g. DeMar DeRozan).

Is there a special reason using an upper case letter in the middle of one's name? Would it be considered erroneous or offensive if you write Lebron, Mcgrady and Demar Derozan?

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    Because the origin of those names is not English, I guess. E.g McGrady means "Son of Grady" in Scottish.
    – Bella Swan
    Jun 18, 2019 at 5:22
  • tl;dr: because those are two words that are glued together.
    – Mr Lister
    Jun 18, 2019 at 8:55
  • Maybe not offensive, but I don't see how it could NOT be considered "erroneous".
    – J.R.
    Jun 18, 2019 at 9:13
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    @MrLister This is what wiki says about LeBron (originating from Lebrón), but I don't see how it is formed by two words glued together.
    – Cyker
    Jun 19, 2019 at 0:44

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Bella Swan is right, that is because that is simply the way they are stylized. It typically only appears in names and is simply the way they are written for various reasons. The most common one in America is because of a past connection to how names are typically stylized in the language/country of origin.

Especially for last names, improper stylization would typically considered wrong and therefore also probably rude. Obviously not on the level of using a slur, but still shows a lack of respect toward the person or at least a lack of familiarity with the proper way to do things.


I would note that there are also intances where (at least what I would consider) a last name does not begin with a capital letter, especially from Dutch origin.

  • van Beek
  • van der Heide
  • de Groot

Sometimes names such as these might be Anglicized during assimilation and loose a specific spelling or stylization could have been intentionally dropped. Therefore it is proper to abide by whatever way the person in question perfers their name to be written. This page adds some more information with examples

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  • French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, too, that I know of, plus the English ffolkes family. Jun 18, 2019 at 9:31
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    Wiki says: Lebrón is sometimes transliterated into an English given name as Lebron or LeBron. Does this mean Lebron and LeBron are both acceptable stylizations of the same foreign name? Even so, it is still considered wrong to use Lebron instead of LeBron if a person writes his own name as LeBron?
    – Cyker
    Jun 19, 2019 at 0:40
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    You are correct, a parent can stylize their child's name however they want in terms of capital or not, and that is the official spelling. So yes I am sure there are people that have their name as "Lebron" too. In that case using "LeBron" for that person would be considered wrong.
    – katatahito
    Jun 19, 2019 at 0:49

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