A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, 7th edition - Kate L. Turabian 2007

Names - People, places, and organizations
Names, special terms, and titles of works
Part III. Style 20 spelling

This chapter offers general guidelines for presenting names, special terms, and titles of works, including when to use capital or lowercase letters at the beginnings of words and when to use quotation marks or italic type (as opposed to regular, roman type) to set off words, phrases, or titles.

In some cases, you may need to adapt these guidelines to situations not described here. If so, be consistent. If you cannot use an italic font, underline instead.

If you are writing a thesis or dissertation, your department or university may have specific requirements for presenting names, special terms, and titles. Those requirements are usually available from the office of theses and dissertations. If you are writing a class paper, your instructor may also ask you follow certain principles for presenting such items. Review these requirements before you prepare your paper. They take precedence over the guidelines suggested here. For style guides in various disciplines, see the bibliography.

22.1 Names

Proper nouns, or names, are always capitalized, but it is sometimes difficult to distinguish a name from a generic term. This section covers the most common cases. For more detailed information, see chapter 8 of the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (2003).

In text, names are normally presented in roman type, but there are a few exceptions noted in 22.1.3.

22.1.1 People, places, and organizations

In general, capitalize the first letter in each element of the names of specific people, places, and organizations. However, personal names that contain particles (such as de and van) or compound last names may vary in capitalization. When in doubt, consult Webster's Biographical Dictionary or another reliable authority. Prepositions (of) and conjunctions (and) that are parts of names are usually lowercase, as is the when it precedes a name. For possessive forms of names, see 20.2. For abbreviations with names, see 24.2. For names with numbers, see 23.1.6.

Eleanor Roosevelt

the United States Congress

W. E. B. Du Bois

the State Department

Ludwig van Beethoven

the European Union

Victoria Sackville-West

the University of North Carolina

Chiang Kai-shek

the Honda Motor Company

Sierra Leone

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Central America

the University of Chicago Press

New York City

the National Conference of Christians and Jews

the Atlantic Ocean

the Roman Catholic Church

the Republic of Lithuania

the Allied Expeditionary Force

A professional title that immediately precedes a personal name is treated as part of the name and should be capitalized. If you use the title alone or after the personal name, it becomes a generic term and should be lowercased. The same principle applies to other generic terms that are part of place or organization names.

President Harry Truman announced

the president announced

Professors Harris and Wilson wrote

the professors wrote

next to the Indian Ocean

next to the ocean

students at Albion College

students at the college

Names of ethnic and national groups are also capitalized. Terms denoting socioeconomic level, however, are not. (For hyphenation of compounds of both types, see 20.3.2. For plurals of tribal names, such as Hopi, see 20.1.1.)

Arab Americans

Latinos

the middle class

blue-collar workers

Capitalize adjectives derived from names, unless they have lost their literal associations with particular persons or places and have become part of everyday language.

Machiavellian scheme

french fries

Roman and Arabic art

roman and arabic numerals