Dreyer's English - Benjamin Dreyer 2022
A note on initials
Notes on proper nouns
The stuff in the back
Random House (my employer) style*4 favors even spacing overall for names featuring two initials; that is:
E. E. Cummings (rather than E.E. Cummings)
T. S. Eliot (rather than T.S. Eliot)
H. L. Mencken (you get the point)
to say nothing of
George R. R. Martin
For names featuring three initials, go with the more compact
J.R.R. Tolkien
for instance, because on the page, J. R. R. Tolkien, not unlike the Peter Jackson films taken from his books, goes on for bloody ever.
More and more often I’m seeing, for people who truly use their initials as a first name, such stylings as
PJ Harvey
and
KT Tunstall
which I think look spiffy and make good sense, an enviably fine combination.
Mostly you want to strike a balance between editorial preferences and the preferences of the people who own the names.
CRUELLA DE VIL
Puppy-coat-craving archvillainess.
Not “de Ville,” as I often encounter it.
While we’re here: Dodie Smith’s 1956 novel is The Hundred and One Dalmatians. The 1961 Disney animated film thereof was first released as One Hundred and One Dalmatians; it’s now generally marketed as 101 Dalmatians, which is the official title of the 1996 live-action remake.
The spotted dogs are not “Dalmations,” though that error attempts to happen every so often.
W.E.B. DU BOIS
Writer and civil rights activist.
His surname is correctly rendered “Du Bois” and not (as for Tennessee Williams’s Blanche, in the play A Streetcar Named Desire) “DuBois.”
And it’s pronounced not “doo-BWAH” (which would be correct for Williams’s Blanche) but “doo-BOYZ.”
T. S. ELIOT
Poet, and person ultimately responsible for the musical Cats.
This is your reminder always to look up Eliots, Elyots, Elliots, and Elliotts.
MAHATMA GANDHI
Nonviolent revolutionary.
Born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
“Mahatma,” by the way, isn’t a name per se. It’s a Sanskrit honorific, meaning “great soul.”
All that taken into account, the surname is not “Ghandi,” as it’s misspelled with dismaying frequency.
THEODOR GEISEL
Aka Dr. Seuss.
Cat in the Hat creator.
Not a Theodore with a second e.*5
ALLEN GINSBERG
Poet of the Beat Generation, young artists in the 1940s and 1950s who challenged literary convention.
Always verify the name of anyone who is named Allen, Allan, Alan, Ginsberg, Ginsburg (Ruth Bader, for instance), or even Ginzburg.
JAKE GYLLENHAAL
Actor.
Also, for that matter, Maggie Gyllenhaal, his sister. Actress.
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
Composer of the late Baroque era.
This, above, is his own anglicized version of his name; in the original German he’s Georg Friedrich Händel.
O. HENRY
Pen name of twisty-ending-short-story writer William Sydney Porter, author of “The Gift of the Magi,” every English teacher’s go-to example of irony.
Not “O’Henry.”
The candy bar is Oh Henry!; it was not, as many people think, named after baseball player Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron.
KATHARINE HEPBURN
Radiant personality and occasionally brilliant actress.
Not “Katherine.”
ADOLF HITLER
Genocidal maniac democratically elected to run an ostensibly enlightened nation.
It’s not “Adolph.”
SCARLETT JOHANSSON
Actress.
Two t’s in Scarlett, like in Scarlett O’Hara.
NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV
Premier of the former Soviet Union and shoe banger.*6
You’d think that people would always look up a tricky name like Khrushchev. You’d be wrong.
FREDDY KRUEGER
Frequenter of Elm Street.
Not “Kreuger.” And not “Kruger.” And not “Kroger.”
SHIA LABEOUF
Star of Holes, the film adaptation of Louis Sachar’s beloved book of the same name. I appreciate people who take the time to spell this odd actor’s odd name correctly. In a more sensible French-cognizant world, it would be spelled LeBoeuf.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Quite literally, Renaissance man.
He’s set here between LaBeouf and Lévi-Strauss rather than up among the D’s because his name is, indeed, Leonardo and he shouldn’t be referred to as “Da Vinci.” Vinci is the town in Italy he was from; it’s not his name. That novel by Dan Brown has done much to blunt this particular point, but getting this right remains a laudable thing to do.
CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS
Anthropologist.
(The unrelated company that makes the jeans is Levi Strauss.)
ROY LICHTENSTEIN
Pop artist.
I occasionally see the spelling of his name confused with that of the little landlocked European country hemmed in by Switzerland and Austria, which are themselves landlocked, and which is the Principality of Liechtenstein.
MACBETH
Shakespeare’s thane of Cawdor.
Not “MacBeth.”
It’s the wise writer who looks up any name starting with Mac- or Mc-, whether it belongs to an apple (McIntosh) or to a computer (Macintosh), or to James Abbott McNeill Whistler (painter), Fred MacMurray (actor), or Old MacDonald (farmer).
While we’re here: The theatrical superstition against uttering the name Macbeth is often misrepresented. You may safely utter it, say, walking down Forty-Fourth Street in New York City, or at dinner. Or while reading this book aloud. You may not utter it, except during rehearsals or performances, in a theater. Thus the euphemisms “the Scottish play,” “the Scottish lord,” etc.
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
Actor.
His surname is impossible to spell correctly.
IAN MCKELLEN
Actor. Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films by Peter Jackson.
His name is—inexplicably, I’d say; one might just as easily get it right as get it wrong—often misrendered “McKellan.”
STEPHENIE MEYER
Writer of the Twilight series.
Not “Stephanie.”
FRIEDRICH WILHELM NIETZSCHE
Trouble-causing German philosopher.
There are, I’ve learned over the years, so many, many ways to misspell Nietzsche.
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE
Artist.
Two f’s.
EDGAR ALLAN POE
Writer.
I’d venture to say that Poe’s is the most consistently misspelled author’s name in the so-called Western canon. His central name is not “Allen.”
SPIDER-MAN
Superhero.
Note the hyphen, note the capital M.
MOTHER TERESA
Nun, missionary, now a Catholic saint.
Not Theresa.
TINKER BELL
Fairy.
Two words, “bell” conveying the sound of her communication, “tinker” conveying that her job was to mend pots and pans. Really.
HARRY S. TRUMAN
President on whose desk was a sign reading THE BUCK STOPS HERE, meaning “I am ultimately the one to blame.” Truman was responsible for dropping both atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II.
The middle initial doesn’t stand for anything, so for decades copy editors have amused themselves, if no one else, by styling his name as Harry S Truman. Truman seems to have (mostly) signed his name with a perioded S, so let’s do it that way.
WINNIE-THE-POOH
Bear.
A. A. Milne styled the bear’s full name with hyphens (though the character is also called, hyphenlessly, Pooh Bear). The Disney folk do not.