How do I convert a name to proper case?

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T-SQL 
 
Here is a T-SQL function that will handle this conversion. It will work for normal names and concatenations, like O'Brien and Moseley-Williams. It will not, however, work for joined names like VanWyck, or for compound names that are *meant* to be lower case, like Oscar de la Hoya. 
 

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.pCase  (      @strIn VARCHAR(255)  )  RETURNS VARCHAR(255)  AS  BEGIN      IF @strIn IS NULL          RETURN NULL        DECLARE          @strOut VARCHAR(255),          @i INT,          @Up BIT,          @c VARCHAR(2)        SELECT          @strOut = '',          @i = 0,           @Up = 1        WHILE @i <= DATALENGTH(@strIn)      BEGIN          SET @c = SUBSTRING(@strIn,@i,1)          IF @c IN (' ','-','''')          BEGIN              SET @strOut = @strOut + @c              SET @Up = 1          END          ELSE          BEGIN              IF @up = 1                  SET @c = UPPER(@c)              ELSE                  SET @c = LOWER(@c)                SET @strOut = @strOut + @c              SET @Up = 0          END          SET @i = @i + 1      END      RETURN @strOut  END  GO

 
Sample usage: 
 

SELECT      dbo.pCase('bill o''reilly'),      dbo.pCase('bill van der wal'),      dbo.pCase('mr. moseley-williams'),      dbo.pCase('Joe VanWyck')

 
For another T-SQL example, see this function from Vyas. 
 

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VBScript 
 
Here is a VBScript version, based on the same logic. Since the logic is similar, the same disclaimers apply; there is no universal way, I believe, to handle proper casing correctly, 100% of the time. 
 

<%      Function pCase(strIn)          strOut = ""          boolUp = True          For i = 1 To Len(strIn)              c = Mid(strIn, i, 1)              if c = " " or c = "'" or c = "-" then                  strOut = strOut & c                  boolUp = True              Else                  If boolUp Then                      tc = Ucase(c)                  Else                      tc = LCase(c)                  End If                  strOut = strOut & tc                  boolUp = False              End If          Next          pCase = strOut      End Function  %>

 
Sample usage: 
 

<%      Response.Write pCase('bill o''reilly') & "<br>"      Response.Write pCase('bill van der wal') & "<br>"      Response.Write pCase('mr. moseley-williams') & "<br>"      Response.Write pCase('Joe VanWyck')  %>

 

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JScript / Regular Expressions 
 
Here is some code courtesy Chris Hohmann. 
 

<script language=JScript runat=SERVER>        function pCase(s)      {          return s.replace(/(\w)(\w*)/g,function          (              strMatch,              strFirst,              strRest,              intMatchPos,              strSource          )          {              return strFirst.toUpperCase()              +strRest.toLowerCase();          });      }    </script>

 
Sample usage: 
 

<script language=JScript runat=SERVER>        Response.Write(pCase('bill o\'reilly') + '<br>');      Response.Write(pCase('bill van der wal') + '<br>');      Response.Write(pCase('mr. moseley-williams') + '<br>');      Response.Write(pCase('Joe VanWyck') + '<br>');    </script>

 

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CSS 
 
Another option (which is even less flexible) is to use text-transform (only works for browsers with sufficient CSS support): 
 

<span style='text-transform:capitalize'>mr john moseley-williams</span>

 

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Be very cautious when deciding to employ any of these methods. Some cultures (and, more likely, individual people) are very sensitive to case sensitivity! You might consider just leaving their names the way they were entered.