English Grammar for the Utterly Confused - Laurie Rozakis 2003
Capitalize Names and Titles
Chapter 11 Capitalization and Abbreviations
Part 4 A Writers Tools
1. Capitalize each part of a person’s name.
George W. Bush Jennifer Aniston
Soupy Sales Hillary Clinton
• If a name begins with d’, de, du, or von, capitalize the prefix unless it is preceded by a first name or a title.
Without a first name Du Pont Von Karman
With a first name E. I. du Pont Theodore von Karman
• If a name begins with Mc, O’, or St., capitalize the next letter as well.
McMannus
O’Neill
St. Claire
• If the name begins with la or le, the capitalization varies: le Blanc and Le Blanc are both correct, for example.
• Capitalize the names of specific animals.
Rin Tin Tin
Lassie
Morris the cat
• A personal name that is used as a common noun is no longer capitalized. These words are often used in science.
curie
watt
newton
kelvin
2. Capitalize titles used before a person’s name.
President Bush Chief Scientist Smithson
Dr. Frankenstein Ms. Brownmiller
Mr. Williams Professor Chin
For a democracy, we have a surprising number of titles. Here are some of the most common ones:
Religious titles: Bishop Reverend
Father Sister
Rabbi Monsigneur
Military titles: Admiral Colonel
Major Sergeant
Lieutenant General
Elected officials: Mayor Governor
President Senator
Congressman Congresswoman
Secretary Ambassador
Earned titles: Doctor Professor
Provost Dean
Honorary titles: Sir Lord
Lady Madame
• Capitalize all parts of a compound title.
Vice President Lieutenant Governor
• Capitalize titles to show respect.
The Senator spoke to us at the ribbon cutting.
A senator’s time is always in demand.
• Capitalize titles used in direct address.
Doctor, I have a pain in my side.
Nurse, please bring me the bandage.
3. Capitalize titles that show family relationships when the title is used with a person’s name or in direct address.
Grandmother Pirandello came from Italy in the 1950s.
Grandfather, will you take us to the zoo?
4. Capitalize titles of parents and relatives not preceded by a possessive word (such as my).
We saw Mother kissing Santa Claus.
I saw my mother kissing my father.
5. Capitalize abbreviations that appear after a person’s name.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Laurie Rozakis, Ph.D.
Grace Lui, M.D.
6. Capitalize the major words in titles of books, plays, movies, newspapers, and magazines.
Do not capitalize the articles: a, an, the
Do not capitalize prepositions: at, by, for, of, in, up, on, so, on, to, etc.
Do not capitalize conjunctions: and, as, but, if, or, nor
In effect, any word with more than four letters in a title gets capitalized.
• Capitalize book titles.
Grammar and Usage for the Utterly Confused
Schaum’s Quick Guide to Writing Great Research Papers
• Capitalize play titles.
She Stoops to Conquer
Cats
• Capitalize movie titles.
The Great Escape
From Here to Eternity
• Capitalize newspaper titles.
The New York Times
The Washington Post
• Capitalize magazine titles.
Sports Illustrated for Kids
Atlantic Monthly
7. Capitalize acronyms.
An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the first letter of each word in the title. A few words have entered English that were first acronyms but are now formed with lowercase
letters, such as laser and radar. However, most acronyms are formed with capital letters. Note: Since acronyms are used as words, they never take periods.
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)