Utility function to properly capitalize names

capnames.py

def capnames(line):
    if isinstance(line, basestring):
        was_string = isinstance(line, str)
        if was_string:
            line = line.decode('utf-8')
        line = line.lower() \
            .replace(u'otoole', u'o\'toole') \
            .replace(u'\\', u'')
        line = u'-'.join(_.strip() for _ in line.split(u'-'))
        line = u"'".join(_.strip() for _ in line.split(u"'"))
        line = u'ª '.join(_.strip() for _ in line.split(u'ª'))
        line = u'º '.join(_.strip() for _ in line.split(u'º'))
        line = u', '.join(_.strip() for _ in line.split(u','))
        line = u'. '.join(_.strip() for _ in line.split(u'.'))
        names = line.split()
        for i in range(len(names)):
            if names[i] not in (u'de', u'del', u'el', u'la', u'las',
                u'los', u'do', u'von', u'van', u'der', u'ben', u'ibn', u'ebn',
                u'bin', u'of', u'y', u'i', u'eta', u'and', u'und', u'du', u'dos',
                u'les', u'da', u'den', u'ten', u'zu', u'z', u'af', u'av', u'ver',
                u'op', u'della', u'di', u'lo', u'zum', u'vor', u'dem', u'auf',
                u'als', u'sich', u'ein', u'mit', u'degli', u'zur'):
                for special_char in (u'.', u',', u'-', u"'"):
                    name_parts = names[i].split(special_char)
                    for j in range(len(name_parts)):
                        if len(name_parts[j]) > 0:
                            name_parts[j] = name_parts[j][0].upper() + name_parts[j][1:]
                            for prefix in (u'Mc',):
                                if name_parts[j].startswith(prefix):
                                    name_parts[j] = prefix + name_parts[j][len(prefix)].upper() + name_parts[j][(len(prefix)+1):]
                    names[i] = special_char.join(name_parts)
        line = u' '.join(names)
        if was_string:
            line = line.encode('utf-8')
    return line