A
nobiliary particle is used in a
family name or
surname in many
Western cultures to signal the
nobility of a family. The
particle used varies depending on the country, language and period of time. However, in some languages the nobiliary particle is the same as a regular
prepositional particle that was used in the creation of many surnames. In some countries it became customary to distinguish the nobiliary particle from the regular one by different spelling, although in other countries these conventions did not arise, occasionally resulting in ambiguity.