@@ -766,8 +766,8 @@ for n in ('Smith, John','Smith, XYZ'): print(n, calls_for(off.parse, n), calls_f
   MEASURED 2026-10-08 against 4278693d (#621's merge), py3.11, `nameparser.__file__` asserted, with the #614 harnesses and recipe above: fingerprint 0 moves; connective grid 0; S2 stress grid 12, three garbage names under four policies, none in the head-plus-one-word slice -- `Freiherr von Berg Dr. X.Y.Z. VD` reads title 'Freiherr Dr.', suffix 'X.Y.Z. VD' (H5's trailing title, the class #614 moved; master family 'von Berg Dr. X.Y.Z.'), `Jan Freiherr von Berg VD V and ba I` reads family 'VD V and ba I' as adf6da88 did (master suffix 'I'), and `de Mesnil Ma do mc and Ph. D.` reports the 'do' the peel took beside adf6da88's 'Ma'. Five gates exit 0. Frames unchanged, 308 on 3.11 and 289 on 3.12-3.15 (decisions.md#parse-cost).
   /SIMPLIFY (2026-10-08), measured. Each pass of `tail_reading` had rescanned for the second unit from the front, a C-level quadratic no frame guard saw: `Freiherr von` + `Berg `*n + `MA Dr. `*n read 5.77x for 4x the input against master's 4.08x; the lookup is now made once per read and handed to every pass (4.03x), and `test_the_second_unit_is_found_once_per_read` counts it. `_weighed` is pinned to the reading by `test_a_word_the_read_takes_is_never_one_the_count_joined` (no piece marked JOINED is ever in the run the read takes; 320 grid names fail with the test answering False). The gathering of an absorbed particle run reads the BOUND marks, and #602's run start one condition. Grids byte-identical, frames unchanged. Left for a follow-up, each moving readings: merging the tail's particle runs in group before the read, which would retire the BOUND stop and the gathering (80 grid names move, `Dr. mc mc`, and the chain's particle report needs re-keying); and the name start decided once, the item below.
   LEFT OPEN, by Derek's scoping: reading a family comma's given part the same way, and deciding the name's start once for a title-particle head (#620's related paths, which change readings).
-- 2026-10-10 (Derek), #627 — A LONE PARTICLE WITH THE RUN RIGHT BEHIND IT IS THE SURNAME. #602's run start needs two name words before the credential, and "a lone particle is not a name word for the count", for `de Mesnil`, where the particle and the word behind it are one surname. Since #620 the count is taken in the chain's units, so a particle that opens a unit counts once (`van der`, `von Berg`) and a P3-joined phrase is one piece (`von und zu`); the lone particle stayed uncounted only where nothing joins it, which is exactly where a credential stands behind it. So `John von PhD Jones` read middle 'von PhD', family 'Jones' -- the chain later taking the credential as the particle's surname -- while `John van der PhD Jones` and `John von und zu PhD Jones` read family 'van der' / 'von und zu', suffix 'PhD Jones', and the comma spelling `Smith, John von PhD Jones` already read suffix 'PhD Jones'. The issue's question was which way to make them agree.
-  DECIDED (Derek): the particle stops at the credential, so it is the surname and the rest is suffix: `John von PhD Jones` → family 'von', suffix 'PhD Jones'. The input is malformed (a particle is not written before a post-nominal), so the decision is whichever reading the shared count already gives the other forms, not a special case for this one: the existing clause gains its own limit, a lone particle counting when the run starts right behind it, in `run_start`'s one loop. The caller without the chain's units (`trailing_start`) shares the expression so the two cannot disagree, but no input shows that half: it changes the position it returns for `Smith, John von PhD Jones` (2 where master gave 4) and nothing downstream reads the difference (#627's review, a mutant ignoring the flag there passing the suite and the grid byte-identical). The 1.4.0 and 2.3.0 wheels read middle 'von PhD', as they read `von und zu PhD`; the joined forms changed this cycle with #602.
+- 2026-10-10 (Derek), #627 — A LONE PARTICLE WITH THE RUN RIGHT BEHIND IT COUNTS AS A NAME WORD. #602's run start needs two name words before the credential, and "a lone particle is not a name word for the count", for `de Mesnil`, where the particle and the word behind it are one surname. Since #620 the count is taken in the chain's units, so a particle that opens a unit counts once (`van der`, `von Berg`) and a P3-joined phrase is one piece (`von und zu`); the lone particle stayed uncounted only where nothing joins it, which is exactly where a credential stands behind it. So `John von PhD Jones` read middle 'von PhD', family 'Jones' -- the chain later taking the credential as the particle's surname -- while `John van der PhD Jones` and `John von und zu PhD Jones` read family 'van der' / 'von und zu', suffix 'PhD Jones', and the comma spelling `Smith, John von PhD Jones` already read suffix 'PhD Jones'. The issue's question was which way to make them agree.
+  DECIDED (Derek): the particle stops at the credential, so it is a name word of its own and the rest is suffix: `John von PhD Jones` → family 'von', suffix 'PhD Jones'. The input is malformed (a particle is not written before a post-nominal), so the decision is whichever reading the shared count already gives the other forms, not a special case for this one: the existing clause gains its own limit, a lone particle counting when the run starts right behind it, in `run_start`'s one loop. The caller without the chain's units (`trailing_start`) shares the expression so the two cannot disagree, but no reading shows that half: it changes the position it returns for `Smith, John von PhD Jones` (2 where master gave 4), so group's chain takes its stopped path and asks `trailing_start` again, reaching the same reading at 16 more frames (339 → 355 on py3.11; a rare shape no frame guard sees, decided for the shared expression over a per-caller copy); a mutant ignoring the flag there passed the suite with the grid byte-identical (#627's reviews). The 1.4.0 and 2.3.0 wheels read middle 'von PhD', as they read `von und zu PhD`; the joined forms changed this cycle with #602.
   Declined: counting every unit, a lone particle included. It moved 2,836 S2-grid parses rather than 2,432, the extra ones all `de Mesnil <credentials>`, where it counted the surname as two words, and it split the two callers: a leading `van` counted before another particle (`van la Smith Jr. Jones` → suffix 'Jr. Jones') but not before a name word (`van Smith Jr. Jones`), and the case row `van la Smith Secretary Jr. Dr. Smith` caught it.
   MEASURED 2026-10-10 against 195c4081 (#630's merge), py3.11, `nameparser.__file__` asserted on each side. S2 stress grid (the #614 entry's recipe above, 324,552 parses): 2,432 role moves, no report-only move; every move is a lone particle -- in that grid `van`, or a dual `do`/`mc`/`vd` in any case -- with an unambiguous credential right behind it becoming the family (under the family-first orders the given name, the family staying first), the run taking the rest. The grid's comma shapes do not move; the review found the same move in shapes the grid lacks, as intended: other particles (`von`, `de`, `du`, `la`, `bin`), and a head before a suffix comma (`John von PhD Jones, Jr.` → family 'von', suffix 'PhD Jones, Jr.'). Fingerprint of every `tools/differential/corpus*.jsonl` name and `tests/v2/cases.py` text at 195c4081 under the three orders (1,925 texts, the seven fields and every report): 0 moves; this change adds one text, its own example, which moves. The five differential gates exit 0. Held by the case row `John von PhD Jones` (`fix(#627)`) against the row `van la Smith Secretary Jr. Dr. Smith`, whose lone particle has a name word behind it and still does not count, and the row `Freiherr von vd PhD Jones`, where the particle standing right before the credential is one the run took and the flag is not asked of it (a mutant asking it of every piece passed the suite until that row).
 
 
@@ -4826,7 +4826,8 @@ name_regex = "^(?:Eric H\\. Holder Jr\\. Attorney General|Jane van der Berg née
 fields = ["family", "middle", "suffix", "title"]
 
 [[change]]
-# rules.md#S2: "leaving it nothing to join: then it is the surname"
+# rules.md#S2: "leaving it nothing to join: then it counts as a name
+# word of its own"
 # (#627, 2026-10-10): a lone particle with the credential right behind
 # it counts toward the run's two name words, so it is the family and
 # the run takes the rest.
 
@@ -3905,7 +3905,8 @@ name_regex = "^(?:Eric H\\. Holder Jr\\. Attorney General|Jane van der Berg née
 fields = ["_ambiguities", "family", "middle", "suffix", "title"]
 
 [[change]]
-# rules.md#S2: "leaving it nothing to join: then it is the surname"
+# rules.md#S2: "leaving it nothing to join: then it counts as a name
+# word of its own"
 # (#627, 2026-10-10): a lone particle with the credential right behind
 # it counts toward the run's two name words, so it is the family and
 # the run takes the rest.
 
@@ -3850,7 +3850,8 @@ name_regex = "^(?:Eric H\\. Holder Jr\\. Attorney General|Jane van der Berg née
 fields = ["_ambiguities", "family", "middle", "suffix", "title"]
 
 [[change]]
-# rules.md#S2: "leaving it nothing to join: then it is the surname"
+# rules.md#S2: "leaving it nothing to join: then it counts as a name
+# word of its own"
 # (#627, 2026-10-10): a lone particle with the credential right behind
 # it counts toward the run's two name words, so it is the family and
 # the run takes the rest.
 
@@ -2348,7 +2348,8 @@ name_regex = "^(?:Eric H\\. Holder Jr\\. Attorney General|Jane van der Berg née
 fields = ["_ambiguities", "family", "middle", "suffix", "title"]
 
 [[change]]
-# rules.md#S2: "leaving it nothing to join: then it is the surname"
+# rules.md#S2: "leaving it nothing to join: then it counts as a name
+# word of its own"
 # (#627, 2026-10-10): a lone particle with the credential right behind
 # it counts toward the run's two name words, so it is the family and
 # the run takes the rest.
 
@@ -1634,7 +1634,8 @@ name_regex = "^(?:Eric H\\. Holder Jr\\. Attorney General|Jane van der Berg née
 fields = ["_ambiguities", "family", "middle", "suffix", "title"]
 
 [[change]]
-# rules.md#S2: "leaving it nothing to join: then it is the surname"
+# rules.md#S2: "leaving it nothing to join: then it counts as a name
+# word of its own"
 # (#627, 2026-10-10): a lone particle with the credential right behind
 # it counts toward the run's two name words, so it is the family and
 # the run takes the rest.