didn’t see a thread (just mocking poor…) and not sure yet.
from a book.
They were Hackett, Sarrow and de Jong. De Jong was killed in a car accident.
is it proper to capitalize a name, that starts with a lower case letter, even if beginning a sentence?
I think a lot relies on how “de” works within the original language. It might be a “formality” of naming: Billiam de Jong == Billiam of (the clan) Jong
I believe the German “von” is viewed similarly.
In this context, it is capitalized.
But if the name is properly all lower case (k d lang comes to mind), then I think it should remain as a lower case, even when starting a sentence.
Actually, according to grammarly.com, even the k in “k d lang” should be capitalized when starting a sentence (from a strict grammar rules perspective).