Biblatex: How can I get the label [BvB60] instead of [BB60] for an article by “Bach and van Beethoven (1760)”?

Question

I'm using the alphabetic style of biblatex as follows:

\usepackage[
  style=alphabetic,
  maxcitenames=3,
  minnames=3,
  useprefix=true
]{biblatex}

In the .bib-file, I have an entry:

@article{opera,
  author = {Bach, Johann Sebastian and van Beethoven, Ludwig},
  year = {1760},
}

When cited, this article will be rendered as [BB60]. Since I set useprefix=true, I expected the von-part to be present: [BvB60]. Is this a bug? How do I get the desired behavior without explicitly setting the label=BvB field in the BibTeX entry? And why is false the default value for useprefix?

Answer 1

With useprefix=true and biber as backend, you get "BvB60" as label. (backend=bibtex8 will produce "BB60".)

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[
  style=alphabetic,
  useprefix=true,
  backend=biber,
]{biblatex}
\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@article{opera,
  author = {Bach, Johann Sebastian and van Beethoven, Ludwig},
  year = {1760},
}
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\nocite{*}

\begin{document}

\printbibliography

\end{document}