>and even European ones have letters that can't be capitalized (for example ß) In German, that character is never used at the beginning of a word or name, so i

>and even European ones have letters that can't be capitalized (for example ß) In German, that character is never used at the beginning of a word or name, so it's really irrelevant. I think a better example of something that doesn't fit that scheme is a Dutch surname like "van der Beek": they're multiple words, separated by spaces, and not all of them are capitalized. Some German names are similar: "von Staufenberg". Also, some cultures have more than 3 names. Hispanic people frequently have 4 or (I think) even 5 names, not just 3.