Read a one-case bare letter as the initial its capital is (#723)

AGENTS.md

@@ -173,7 +173,7 @@ The library has two layers: `nameparser/config/` (data) and `nameparser/parser.p
 
 **Sweep the forms a change can reach: comma shapes, then `name_order`.** No comma, a FULL name before the comma, a ONE-WORD name before the comma and NOTHING before the comma are four paths, and the last two are the misses — #429, #430 and #432 are all the one-word path disagreeing with the full-name path on inputs the full-name path reads correctly, and #613's PR review found `, PhD` and `, Jr.` (an empty surname field, as CSV data writes it) read as given and title by a decision that returned early on an empty head, after two review rounds whose every grid had a name before the comma. Put an empty head and a nickname-only head (`(Bob), PhD`) in every comma grid. Count the one-word path the way C1 counts, which is neither tokens nor pieces: a particle run and the one word it attaches to are one word (#575), a connective join and a bound given-name pair count as their words (#613, so `Ortega y Gasset, Dr.` is a whole name), and a suffix beside the surname counts as no name word at all. #603's review found the suffix half (`Vega y Lopez Jr., PhD Jones` lost its family where `Vega y Lopez, PhD Jones` kept it); #613 then reversed the connective half, and both now read given 'Vega', middle 'y', family 'Lopez' — so test a particle surname, a connective surname and a surname with a suffix, each before a comma. For orders the sweep already exists (`tests/v2/test_cases.py` runs every row under all three) but carries one assertion, R2's family partition, so it checks nothing a new change moves; coverage there has been vacuous before (PR #394's review found the suite passed with `name_order` discarded from grouping). Parse your change's names in each comma shape and each order, and read the ones you did not predict. And read a generated grid's moves by SHAPE, not by corpus membership: #614's first design passed the suite, the five gates and a fingerprint of every corpus name, because its grid moves were sorted into 'corpus name moved' and 'garbage', and the review found the moves that mattered among the 'garbage' -- a bare salutation (`Mr. and Mrs.` lost its connective to the family name) and a name with one trailing word (`Freiherr von Berg X.Y.Z.`). Pull out the head-plus-one-word slice of the grid and a salutation with nothing after it, and read every move there. Two more were the second review's (#614): no grid put TWO words that are both a title and a particle at the head (`Freiherr St van Berg MA`, where an index into the pieces was applied to a merged view of them -- `TITLES ∩ particles_ambiguous` is `{freiherr, st}`, so put both in every head list, each in its bare and its period-marked spelling -- #637's grid had `St` and `Freiherr` alone and missed that `St.` and `Freiherr.` are declined by the bound join and then attached by P6), and the grids compared ambiguity KINDS, so a report telling the caller the wrong field (`Freiherr von Berg Ma`, 'read as a given name' of a word in the family) passed every pin. #701's review added one: put a title/suffix dual (`Ms`, `Sr.`, `Cpl`) SECOND in a title run, behind an ordinary title. A stop that asks only "is this word suffix vocabulary" passes every row that opens with the dual and fails `Rev. Sr. Smith, Mary`; it was found by comparing `T Smith, John` against `T John Smith` over every title word, and a comma-versus-comma-less comparison is the cheap check for any rule that moves a word between the two slots. Compare each report's `detail` against the field its tokens land in -- since #626 `test_a_report_names_the_field_its_word_lands_in` (tests/v2/test_cases.py) does it over every non-locale case row under all three orders (a row carrying its own policy only as declared), for the phrasings its `_FIELD_CLAIMS` lists -- so a row with the shape is the test only where the report's wording is listed: a new emitter's wording goes in that list, and segment's report on a part past the second comma names no field (#629). #626's own first grid then missed an emitter for want of one comma shape (`, Ma Dr.`: an empty head, an ambiguous word, a trailing title, which H1 moves to the family): a trailing title belongs in every empty-head comma grid too. And #620's: an exclusion list in code being replaced is a set of rules, not noise -- #614's merged copy excluded every word the trailing read weighs from its units, the first #620 prototype dropped the list as a symptom of the copy, and its review found the list had been keeping positional counting's rule that a member in front counts as a word (`Freiherr von Berg MA X.Y.Z.` lost its suffix). Before deleting one, mutate each entry out and read what moves.
 
-**Then sweep the spellings: a class reached by vocabulary is also reached by SHAPE.** A test that uses only the listed spelling of a word class walks only the vocabulary path, and the shape path is a separate branch that can be missing while every test passes. Roman numerals are the sharpest case: `ii`, `iii` and `iv` are suffix vocabulary; `i` and `v` are vocabulary too but initial-shaped, so `is_suffix_piece` vetoes them and only the numeral fork reads them; and `vi` through `x` are in no list at all, read by the fork's shape test alone (checked 2026-10-04 against `Lexicon.default()`) -- which stops at `x`: `_vocab._ROMAN` matches I to X, so `John Smith XI` reads `XI` as a name word (re-checked 2026-10-07, #614's /simplify, which found a docstring claiming "any length"). And the fork counts a ONE-letter numeral besides, since #718 (rules/S10): it is the suffix only where the name has a word to spare, so `John V` and `John Smith V` take different branches of one fork, a one-case name being counted like capitals whatever the letter -- since #721 a one-case one-letter numeral carries the `initial` tag its capital does, and a bare letter in front of the numeral is initial-shaped as its capital is, so `john v` reads as `JOHN V` does over `test_a_one_case_name_reads_as_its_capitals`'s grid (comma shapes, orders, a maiden clause, a particle chain, a bare letter in front, a trailing title, a non-ASCII letter in front: 315 disagreeing pairs at 2bfa9533, before #721, and none after). Its first version claimed "every shape" with no bare letter in front and no trailing title in the grid, and #721's reviews found both broken; a grid's claim is the grid -- put a head-plus-numeral row beside every words-to-spare row. So a change that handles `V` and `III` can still miss `VI` — #610 found exactly that, the maiden take's candidate loop admitting a shape-only numeral in one position where the peel reads it in two (`Jane Doe nee Smith VI Prof.` kept maiden `Smith VI` while `V` and `III` worked). The same split runs through the credentials (`MA` listed, `X.Y.Z.` by the dotted shape, `XYZ` by the caps shape, and `Ph. D.` merged by group into one flagged piece the peel's walk never holds -- #603 found #602's run-start predicate refusing it too, so `Smith, John Ph. D. Jones` kept middle 'Jones' where `Smith, John PhD Jones` read suffix 'PhD Jones') and the titles (`Prof.` period-marked and read at the end of a name, `Prof` bare and a name word there). When a change touches a word class, test one spelling from each path. The same holds for a separator's SPACING: a comma (or any punctuation) can stand alone, glue to the word before it or glue to the word after, and each is a different token stream. #653's first fix swept `(née, Jones)` and missed `(née , Jones)`, where the kept comma became a word after the marker and M3 read the clause as maiden ', Jones'; its review found it. Put all three spacings in any grid around a separator.
+**Then sweep the spellings: a class reached by vocabulary is also reached by SHAPE.** A test that uses only the listed spelling of a word class walks only the vocabulary path, and the shape path is a separate branch that can be missing while every test passes. Roman numerals are the sharpest case: `ii`, `iii` and `iv` are suffix vocabulary; `i` and `v` are vocabulary too but initial-shaped, so `is_suffix_piece` vetoes them and only the numeral fork reads them; and `vi` through `x` are in no list at all, read by the fork's shape test alone (checked 2026-10-04 against `Lexicon.default()`) -- which stops at `x`: `_vocab._ROMAN` matches I to X, so `John Smith XI` reads `XI` as a name word (re-checked 2026-10-07, #614's /simplify, which found a docstring claiming "any length"). And the fork counts a ONE-letter numeral besides, since #718 (rules/S10): it is the suffix only where the name has a word to spare, so `John V` and `John Smith V` take different branches of one fork, a one-case name being counted like capitals whatever the letter -- since #721 a one-case one-letter numeral carries the `initial` tag its capital does, and since #723 every one-case bare letter does (rules/T4), and a bare letter in front of the numeral is initial-shaped as its capital is, so `john v` reads as `JOHN V` does over `test_a_one_case_name_reads_as_its_capitals`'s grid (comma shapes, orders, a maiden clause, a particle chain, a bare letter in front, a trailing title, a non-ASCII letter in front: 315 of its then 1,872 pairs disagreed at 2bfa9533, before #721, and none after). Its first version claimed "every shape" with no bare letter in front and no trailing title in the grid, and #721's reviews found both broken; a grid's claim is the grid -- put a head-plus-numeral row beside every words-to-spare row. So a change that handles `V` and `III` can still miss `VI` — #610 found exactly that, the maiden take's candidate loop admitting a shape-only numeral in one position where the peel reads it in two (`Jane Doe nee Smith VI Prof.` kept maiden `Smith VI` while `V` and `III` worked). The same split runs through the credentials (`MA` listed, `X.Y.Z.` by the dotted shape, `XYZ` by the caps shape, and `Ph. D.` merged by group into one flagged piece the peel's walk never holds -- #603 found #602's run-start predicate refusing it too, so `Smith, John Ph. D. Jones` kept middle 'Jones' where `Smith, John PhD Jones` read suffix 'PhD Jones') and the titles (`Prof.` period-marked and read at the end of a name, `Prof` bare and a name word there). When a change touches a word class, test one spelling from each path. The same holds for a separator's SPACING: a comma (or any punctuation) can stand alone, glue to the word before it or glue to the word after, and each is a different token stream. #653's first fix swept `(née, Jones)` and missed `(née , Jones)`, where the kept comma became a word after the marker and M3 read the clause as maiden ', Jones'; its review found it. Put all three spacings in any grid around a separator.
 
 **And the encoding: a letter class written `[^\W\d_]` or tested with `isalpha()` is blind to a combining mark.** Python's `\w` and `isalpha()` do not match Mn, so a letter written as base plus accent (NFD) ends a word early; the vocabulary path is immune because `_normalize` NFC-folds, the shape path is not. #652: `Dr. inž. Janez Novak` read `inž.` as the given name when the ž was decomposed, and `Janez Novak, ŽŠČ` reversed, in two families that share the blind spot — the letter-shape regexes (`period_abbreviation`, `_DOTTED`, `_CHUNKED`, `_PAIRED_INITIALS`), now spelled with `_vocab._LETTER` (a letter plus the general combining blocks; `test_regex_sync` compares the two `_MARKS` strings and pins `period_abbreviation` against config's copy), and the caps predicates, which NFC-compose a non-ASCII word before `isalpha()` (`is_caps_word`, behind C-level `isalpha()`/`is_normalized` tests, so already-composed text pays no frame — measured 2026-10-12, `Smith, José` was 193 frames before and after; the first version called it for every non-ASCII word and cost one frame each, and no guard saw it because the reference name is ASCII). A width test must count letters, not code points (`composed_len`): admitting a decomposed word to the caps set put `John Smith, MÁ` on the pair exception's wrong side, and the review's grid found it where the rows (all three letters long) did not — put a two-letter word in every caps grid. The initial shape (`_INITIAL`, `\w\.`, v1-verbatim and public) is not widened but asked of the COMPOSED word, in `is_initial_shaped` and in `_render`'s two copies; and the single-letter connective tests count composed letters, since a decomposed `й` is two code points (#665, where `É. y É. Smith` and `John й Smith` read differently decomposed). Compose the WHOLE predicate, not one half: `is_initial` is a shape ANDed with the #320 script veto, and composing the shape alone made a decomposed `씨.` an initial, since decomposed hangul is conjoining jamo outside every script range (#665's first version; `in_initialless_script` composes too now). Not covered, deliberately: the marks only some scripts write (Indic vowel signs, Arabic and Hebrew points; rules/H2's Accepted clause). The guard is `test_a_decomposed_name_renders_as_its_composed_twin` over the CLDR corpus plus `test_a_decomposed_abbreviation_reads_as_its_composed_twin` (rows × three orders × EVERYWHERE); the corpus guard reaches a shape only if some corpus name does, which is how the caps shape was missed until review, so when adding a shape rule add a row there. Four of #652's rows and two of #665's pass with every fix reverted (measured) and are parity pins, and the test compares ambiguity kinds and `initials()` too, since #665's `John й Smith` differed in its report; `_DOTTED` has no observable input and is pinned by a direct call.
 

docs/design/decisions/README.md

@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ Entry conventions:
 
 - [T1 — separators, not joiners](T1-separators-not-joiners.md)
 - [T3 — the interpunct's flank guard](T3-interpuncts-flank-guard.md)
+- [T4 — the bare letter as an initial](T4-bare-letter-as-an-initial.md)
 
 ## Ambiguity & tie-breaking (A)
 

docs/design/decisions/S10-trailing-roman-numeral.md

@@ -20,3 +20,4 @@
   THE PREMISE BEHIND #718, REVISED. #718's entry quotes Derek that a generational V is "mostly archaic". On this PR he found otherwise: searching shows many people named John Ingram with every variation of generational marker and middle initial, written without a comma unless a credential follows ("MBA", "MD"). Nothing decided here moves — the two-word count reads each of those as the generation — but #718's lone-numeral reading (`John V`, family 'V') now rests on the count alone, a name of two words having no word to spare for a generation, not on the generation being rare.
 - 2026-10-18, #722's /simplify pass — P3'S "CONNECTS NOTHING" IS ASKED IN ONE PLACE, OVER FINAL ROLES. The last two rounds answered rules/P3's "unless no name word of its part stands to its right" twice: classify skipped its report on a letter that was its part's last own word by position (`ends`), and assign withdrew it at the end of the stage for a letter followed only by suffix and title roles. Both go; assemble, which already withdrew this report where the letter was roled SUFFIX or TITLE (rules/A1), withdraws it too where no given, middle or family word follows the letter in its segment — the roles being final there and nothing downstream moving them. Measured, the one site reads everything the two did, and restores one reading the position cut had wrongly silenced: where no clause forms and the marker is read as a name word, a name word does follow the letter, so `jose e nee` (family 'nee') and `smith, e nee smith` report `conjunction-or-initial` again, as master did. The two reports on a numeral a post-nominal follows (assign's, and the maiden take's twin) share one predicate, `_vocab.reads_as_a_reported_numeral`.
   Open: "a name written wholly in one case says nothing about any letter in it" is applied to the roman-numeral letters only. In a one-case name a bare capital is tagged an initial and a bare lowercase letter is not, unless it is `v`, `i` or `x` (this PR) or a marked connective (P3), so the lowercase and all-caps spellings of a one-case name read differently wherever a reader honors the tag — before #721 too: M4 makes a lone name word before a marker the family but not an initial (`j nee smith` family 'j', `J NEE SMITH` given 'J'), O5 is silenced by one (a lone `j` reports given-or-family, `J` does not), and the connective join defers to one (`jose j y lopez` family 'j y lopez', `JOSE J Y LOPEZ` middle 'J Y', family 'LOPEZ'). Tagging every one-case single letter as its capital is tagged is a behavior change beyond this PR: #723.
+- 2026-10-18, #723 — THE OPEN QUESTION ABOVE IS ANSWERED, FOR EVERY LETTER. A bare letter in a one-case name is the initial its capital is (rules/T4), and the one-letter numerals are an instance of that rule rather than a case of their own: S10's own one-case sentences are unchanged, and classify's numeral test is gone into T4's. History: decisions/T4.