In his discussion of suspects in the Piltdown Man mystery, Chris Stringer alludes to the French Jesuit priest, philosopher and palaeontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (Nature 492, 177–179; 2012). The article mistakenly shortens the great man's compound surname to “de Chardin”. In fact, it should read “Teilhard de Chardin” or just “Teilhard”.
Such aristocratic last names are often misinterpreted in English. One glaring example is the condition known as Tourette's syndrome, incompletely named after Georges Gilles de la Tourette, who first described it. “Gilles” is part of the compound last name and not a middle name, as is commonly assumed.
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Louchart, A. Aristocratic names get short shrift. Nature 494, 176 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/494176e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/494176e