Names in references: family name first, van der, al- and Jr.

Names in references go wrong in the same places: family name first, two surnames, particles such as van der and al-, suffixes such as Jr., and one-name authors. This guide, published by EdCitation, gathers the rules for the six styles we build, with real authors checked against their own articles.

We read each rule at its publisher on 26 September 2026. APA Style's site and NLM's Citing Medicine would not load for us, so we read archived copies, including APA's sixth-edition blog posts on names, whose core rules its current pages repeat. The MLA Handbook, the Chicago Manual and Cite Them Right are paywalled: their rules here come from the MLA Style Center, Chicago's Q&A and a university that follows Cite Them Right. EdCitation's free Cite a source builds each name from the publisher's record, and Verify references compares your names with it; we ran both on fifteen real DOIs, faults included.

What is the one rule for names in every style?

Write the name the way the person writes it on the work you cite. APA says to copy the name as published, two-part and hyphenated surnames included, and to keep the author's own capitals, as in hooks, b. (American Psychological Association, 2019b). MLA follows an author's preference for where a particle goes (Modern Language Association, 2020). With non-English names, Chicago tells editors to defer to the writer (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-b).

When you cannot tell which part is the surname, Lee (2017a) suggests the database record, the author's own reference lists, how others cite them, a surname in capitals, and the author's website. Records and articles can disagree. Crossref files the Brazilian psychologist Denise Ruschel Bandeira as Bandeira in most records and as Ruschel Bandeira in a few; the article is what counts.

How do you cite family-name-first names, such as Chinese and Japanese names?

Find the family name, then apply your style as usual. Lee (2017b) says authors normally use the name order of the language they publish in: the same author may appear as Yi-Chun Chang in English and Chang Yi-Chun in a Mandarin journal, and in APA is Chang, Y.-C., cited as (Chang, 2016).

APA, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver

These four invert every name alike. Kazutoshi Takahashi and Shinya Yamanaka published in Cell given name first; in APA they are Takahashi, K., & Yamanaka, S. For Chinese names, Singapore's National Institute of Education (2024) says not to swap family and given names: Liu Woon Chia is Liu, W. C. See also our Korean, Japanese and Hungarian guides.

MLA and Chicago

MLA reverses a Western name for the list. A Chinese, Japanese or Korean name already starts with the family name, so it is not reversed and takes no comma: "Liu Chang et al." (Modern Language Association, 2018b). Chicago's Q&A notes that Chinese names usually begin with the family name but that some people switch to Western order, and leaves the choice to the writer (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-b).

How do you cite two surnames, as in Spanish and Portuguese names?

Keep both surnames when the author publishes with both, and file under the first. APA's own example is Velasco Rodríguez, M. L.; Lee (2017a) adds that many Spanish names take this form. NLM keeps them too, "Lopez Moreno S" and "Mier y Teran J", without accents, since NLM ignores diacritics (Patrias, 2007). Our Spanish citation guide covers the slips.

Chicago files an unhyphenated pair by the final name, but gives Spanish names their own section, which we could not read (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-a). In Portuguese names the mother's surname usually comes first and the father's last, so Portuguese catalogues file under the last part, MARTINS, João Oliveira (IFLA Cataloguing Section, 2009).

Check the article first. Psicothema's byline reads "Laura Sicilia, Maite Barrios and Noemí Pereda"; Crossref's record for the same article gives Sicilia Matas, Barrios Cerrejón and Pereda Beltrán. In APA they are Sicilia, L., Barrios, M., & Pereda, N.

Hyphenated given names

APA keeps the hyphen between initials, Chang, Y.-C. NLM drops it: Jean-Louis Lagrot becomes "Lagrot JL" (Patrias, 2007). MLA and Chicago give the name as printed, hyphen included: Chang, Yu-Chun.

Where do van, de, von, al-, ibn and bin go?

Each style answers differently, so follow yours and be consistent.

• APA keeps the particle in front and the author's capital: van der Waal, P. N. (American Psychological Association, 2019b). Lee (2017a) allows famous exceptions, Beethoven, L. van.
• MLA files a Dutch name by its main part, "Ee, Elsa van" (Modern Language Association, 2019), and an Arabic one the same way, Khalili, Jim al-, unless the author prefers Al-Khalili (Modern Language Association, 2020).
• Chicago files the particle with the name unless the person is normally called by the surname alone: Beauvoir, Simone de (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-c).
• Harvard, in Birmingham City University's (n.d.) guide following Cite Them Right, uses each nation's practice: Bruijn, N. G. de (Dutch), Weber, C. M. von (German), Da Silva, R. H. (Portuguese).
• Vancouver keeps prefixes in the surname, as printed: "van de Kamp JM", "Al Bassit L" (Patrias, 2007).

Dutch universities disagree: see van der in Dutch referencing. For ibn, Abu and the rest of an Arabic name, see the Arabic citation guide. For Malay and Indian names, the National Institute of Education (2024) writes the name as the author publishes it and leaves out bin, binti, s/o and d/o.

How do you write Jr., Sr. and III in each style?

In APA, after the initials in the list and never in the text. Lee (2017a) gives Turner, H. M., III. in the list and (Turner, 2013) in the text, and APA's current page repeats the second half (American Psychological Association, 2019a).

• MLA leaves Jr. out of a parenthetical citation unless two authors share a surname: (Robards, Jr.) and (Robards III) (Modern Language Association, 2023).
• Chicago always puts commas round the suffix of an inverted name: Deer, Jim G., Sr. (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-d).
• Harvard at Birmingham City University: McGwin, G. Jr.
• IEEE changed its rule: its 2018 guide put commas around Jr. (IEEE, 2018), and version 3.28.2025 says not to: Michael Smith Jr. (IEEE, 2025).
• Vancouver adds it after the initials, unpunctuated, with roman numerals as ordinals: "DeVita VT Jr", "Jones JG 2nd" (Patrias, 2007).

How do you cite an author with only one name?

Write the one name in full, with no initial. Lee (2017c) gives APA's example, Sukarno, Indonesia's first president, cited as (Sukarno, 1965), and notes that many Indonesians have a single name. MLA does not invert a name without a surname; its example is "Thomas." (Modern Language Association, 2024).

Records can double a single name. The PDF of a 2023 article in Jurnal Pendidikan Mandala prints its author as SOHDI; the journal page and Crossref record say "Sohdi Sohdi". The APA form is Sohdi. (2023). We found no style publisher's rule for South Indian names; the Singapore guide's advice, the name as the author publishes it, is the safe one.

What about name changes and organisations as authors?

Cite each work under the name printed on it. Where a note is needed, APA says to consult the person and respect their preference (American Psychological Association, 2020). MLA goes further for trans authors known not to use a former name: list their works under the name they use now (Modern Language Association, 2018a). A group author is written out in full in APA, National Institute of Nursing Research, with any abbreviation kept for the text.

How do the styles compare, name by name?

Every example is a real author, checked against the article.

How do you check a name before it goes in your list?

In this order, for every author.

1. Open the article and read the byline; note any surname printed in capitals.
2. Build the entry from the DOI in EdCitation's Cite a source, choosing APA or your style.
3. Compare the names with the byline: lost second surnames, lost middle initials, a missing Jr., a doubled one-word name.
4. Apply your style's rule for particles and suffixes from the sections above.
5. Paste the finished list into Verify references, keeping each DOI, and read every "check this" against the byline.

What did EdCitation return for these names?

EdCitation is the best tool for this job because it looks each name up in the publisher's record, where family and given names are stored apart, and never writes one; no chatbot can say that. It gave Suripto as one name and Chang, Y.-C. with its hyphen. Records have faults too, listed below. Both tools are free with no account, and EdCitation never writes any part of a student's paper.

Cite a source

• Two surnames. For 10.7334/psicothema2021.42, APA gave "Torregrosa Díez, M., Gómez Núñez, M., Sanmartín López, R., García Fernández, J., La Greca, A., Zhou, X., Redondo Pacheco, J., & Inglés Saura, C. (2022)", MLA "Torregrosa Díez, María, et al." The record keeps only first given names: the byline gives Torregrosa Díez, M. S., and four more second initials. For the Sicilia article, APA gave "Sicilia Matas, L., Barrios Cerrejón, M., & Pereda Beltrán, N. (2022)": correct it to the byline. Both Psicothema records also swap volume and issue, 1(34) for 34(1).
• Dutch van. For 10.3109/10673229409017088, APA gave "van der Kolk, B. A. (1994)", in text (van der Kolk, 1994); MLA gave "van der Kolk, Bessel A." Chicago filed it "Kolk, Bessel A. van der" but cited it (van der Kolk 1994), which should match.
• East Asian. For 10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104224, APA gave "Chang, Y.-C., Chang, Y.-T., Chang, H.-Y., & Feng, J.-Y. (2019)", MLA "Chang, Yu-Chun, et al.", both right.
• Suffix. For 10.1111/1471-0528.14551, APA gave "Biggio, J. R., Jr. (2017)", in text (Biggio, 2017), and MLA "Biggio, J. R., Jr.". For 10.1037/1040-3590.4.1.5 the record omits Paul T. Costa Jr.'s suffix, so APA gave "Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992)": add Jr. by hand. For 10.13185/2244-1638.4088 the record gives the author only as "Aguilar" with "Jr.", so APA gave "Aguilar, Jr. (2015)"; write Aguilar, F. V., Jr.
• One name. For 10.58577/dimar.v4i1.68, APA and MLA both gave "Suripto." and (Suripto, 2022), exactly right. For 10.58258/jupe.v8i1.4799, whose record gives the name twice, as given and family name, both gave "Sohdi." and (Sohdi, 2023), also right.

Verify references

We pasted eleven entries without DOIs, some names wrong on purpose. "Kazutoshi, T., & Shinya, Y.", "Matas, L. S." and "Yu-Chun, C." came back "check this": "A record with this title exists, but the first author differs. Check the names." Al-Khalili, Costa Jr., Bandeira, Aguilar Jr. and Sohdi were verified.

Three results need care. "Kolk, B. A. van der", the Dutch form, was verified, so a convention is not mistaken for an error. "Suripto, S." was verified: an invented initial is not caught. The Sicilia entry, written as the article prints it, was matched to a 2022 preprint by a Sicilia; with its DOI it came back "The DOI and title are right, but the first author differs. Check the names." There the byline wins. References from a file, in Pro at $8 a month on the pricing page, runs the same check on an uploaded paper and matches each citation to the list, as checking a reference is real explains.

Quick questions

How do I cite Chinese names in APA?

Family name, comma, initials, whatever order the source prints: Chang, Y.-C., cited as (Chang, 2016) in APA's own example. Capitals marking the surname are dropped.

Does Jr. go in an APA in-text citation?

No. It goes after the initials in the list, Biggio, J. R., Jr., and the citation is (Biggio, 2017).

How do I cite an Indonesian author with one name in APA?

Write the one name with no initial, Suripto. (2022), cited as (Suripto, 2022). Never turn it into Suripto, S.

Can EdCitation write names correctly from a DOI?

EdCitation's Cite a source builds each name from the publisher's record, free. Compare it with the byline: records drop suffixes, initials and second surnames.

References

• American Psychological Association. (2019a). Author–date citation system. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/author-date
• American Psychological Association. (2019b). Elements of reference list entries. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/elements-list-entry
• American Psychological Association. (2020). Citing authors with the same surname. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/citing-authors-same-surname
• Birmingham City University. (n.d.). Harvard style guide. Library and Learning Resources. https://www.bcu.ac.uk/library/services-and-support/referencing/harvard/harvard-style-guide
• IEEE. (2018). IEEE reference guide (V 11.12.2018). IEEE Periodicals. https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/IEEE-Reference-Guide.pdf
• IEEE. (2025). IEEE reference guide (Version 3.28.2025). IEEE Author Center. https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE_Reference_Guide.pdf
• IFLA Cataloguing Section. (2009). Names of persons: Portugal [PDF]. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. https://cdn.ifla.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/assets/cataloguing/pubs/ifla_names_of_persons_portugal_2009.pdf
• Lee, C. (2017a, May 4). What's in a name? Two-part surnames in APA Style. APA Style Blog. Archived April 4, 2025, at https://web.archive.org/web/20250404062011/https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2017/05/whats-in-a-name-two-part-surnames-in-apa-style.html
• Lee, C. (2017b, May 17). What's in a name? Cultural variations in name order. APA Style Blog. Archived September 20, 2025, at https://web.archive.org/web/20250920094526/https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2017/05/whats-in-a-name-cultural-variations-in-name-order.html
• Lee, C. (2017c, May 24). What's in a name? Authors with only one name. APA Style Blog. Archived December 8, 2024, at https://web.archive.org/web/20241208130732/https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2017/05/whats-in-a-name-authors-with-only-one-name.html
• Modern Language Association. (2018a, February 6). How do I cite an author who has transitioned? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/citing-author-who-has-transitioned/
• Modern Language Association. (2018b, September 11). When is a comma used before et al. in MLA style? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/commas-with-et-al/
• Modern Language Association. (2019, April 15). How do I cite a work by an author with a Dutch name that includes the word van? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/citing-dutch-names/
• Modern Language Association. (2020, December 10). Is the particle al- or el- at the start of an Arabic last name capitalized in a works-cited-list entry? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/capitalizing-arabic-names/
• Modern Language Association. (2023, February 8). Should I include "Jr." in an in-text citation? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/jr-in-text-citation/
• Modern Language Association. (2024, February 29). What should I do if an author's last name is not provided in a source? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/last-name-absent-in-source/
• National Institute of Education. (2024). Citing author names (Chinese, Malay, Indian). APA 7th Edition Style Guide, NIE Library. https://libguides.nie.edu.sg/c.php?g=927877&p=7038393
• Patrias, K. (2007). Citing medicine: The NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers (D. L. Wendling, Tech. Ed.; 2nd ed.), chapter 1, Journals. National Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7282/
• University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-a). Alphabetizing (Q&A No. 15). The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Alphabetizing/faq0015.html
• University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-b). Alphabetizing (Q&A No. 28). The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Alphabetizing/faq0028.html
• University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-c). Alphabetizing (Q&A No. 31). The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Alphabetizing/faq0031.html
• University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-d). Jr., Sr., III (Q&A No. 2). The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Jr.Sr.III/faq0002.html