Should Hebrew בן opening a name be the given name Ben? (בן כספית gives family 'בן כספית' and no given name) #1209

he.toml lists בן as a patronymic particle that is never a given name ("not a standalone given name in Hebrew usage"), so P1 (the never-given particle fold) makes a leading בן start the family. In Israeli usage a leading בן is mostly the given name Ben, which the Latin spelling already reads (measured on master 5f22996):

Measured (2026-11-08):

• Wikidata, Israeli citizens (P27 Q801) with the given name Ben (Q816407): 51 have a Hebrew label written בן X; 50 read no given name.
• JRC-Names, Hebrew spellings: all 6 that open with בן are the given name (בן אפלק).
• The Knesset's person table (OData KNS_Person, 1,236 people, Hebrew given and family names in separate fields): no given name is בן; 10 family names begin with בן (בן גביר, בן דהן).
• Lexicon.default().add("בן", kind="given") fixes all 56 Wikidata and JRC names given first and moves nothing else in the Knesset table given first, spoken or after a comma (כספית, בן gives given 'בן', family 'כספית').

The cost is under a family-first order. With a given reading the word is a particle that may be a given name, which P1 no longer folds, so each of the 8 Knesset בן X surnames written family first breaks:

In Latin script P11 (a lower-case leading particle under a family-first order) tells the two apart by case; Hebrew has no case, so nothing in the text does. The comma form (בן גביר, איתמר) reads right either way.

Proposal

Give בן a given reading, its counts beside it, and drop may_be_given = false. A leading בן is then read by position, as Van Gogh is, recording PARTICLE_OR_GIVEN. בת likely follows (Wikidata holds 6 Israelis named בת-שבע, written with a hyphen; spaced, בת שבע כהן reads as above).

Questions

• Is the family-first cost acceptable? Israeli lists that write the family first mostly use a comma, which keeps the reading, but a list without one loses every בן X surname.
• Does בת follow בן? It is rarer as a given name alone; the spaced compound בת שבע is the common case, and that is a two-word given name either way.