Is it acceptable to hyphenate people’s names?

Question

In some circumstances, for example, B.~Alexander may result in B. Alexan-newlineder. Is this acceptable?

If not, is there an elegant way to suppress it? (\hyphenation is too cumbersome and sometimes inflexible.)

Answer 1

Whether proper names may or should not be hyphenated is a matter of style. I found several publishing houses that discourage it, among them University of Houston. UH says their style comes from the Associated Press Stylebook (non-free).

Answer 2

You can use an \mbox to avoid hyphenation of the name:

\mbox{B.~Alexander}

Answer 3

You can also type \uchyph=0 to systematically prohibit the hyphenation of words beginning with an uppercase letter.