AMA Manual of Style - Stacy L. Christiansen, Cheryl Iverson 2020
Proper Nouns
Capitalization
Proper nouns are words used as names for unique individuals, events, objects, or places.
10.3.1 Geographic Names.
Capitalize names of planets, cities, towns, counties, states, countries, continents, islands, airports, peninsulas, bodies of water, mountains and mountain ranges, streets, parks, forests, canyons, dams, and regions (current or historical).
Abu Dhabi International Airport |
Mangyshlak Peninsula |
Arctic Ocean |
Millennium Park |
the Bay Area |
Mexico City |
Bernard Street |
Norfolk, Virginia |
Central America |
Parambikulam Tiger Reserve |
Cook County |
Ryukyu Islands |
El Paso |
Saudi Arabia |
Grand Canyon |
the Silk Route |
Hoover Dam |
the West Coast |
Lake Placid |
West Nile virus |
Maat Mons [on the planet Venus] |
Woods Hole |
If a common noun that is part of a geographic name is capitalized in the singular, it is generally not capitalized in the plural.
Atlantic and Pacific oceans
Kennedy and Eisenhower expressways
Mississippi and Missouri rivers
Compass directions are not capitalized unless they are generally accepted terms for regions.
Walk east until you arrive at the lake.
There is no party like a West Coast party because a West Coast party does not stop.
His psychiatry practice is in northern Michigan.
In the Western World, cardiovascular disease is a major cause of mortality.
10.3.2 Sociocultural Designations.
Capitalize names of languages, nationalities, ethnicities, tribes, political parties, religions, and religious denominations. Do not capitalize political doctrines (conservative, progressive) or general forms of government (democracy, monarchy). Do not capitalize white or black as a designation of race.
African American |
Latina women |
Alaska Native |
Native American |
English language |
Navajo |
Indian American community |
Presbyterian |
Islam |
Sanskrit |
of Italian heritage |
10.3.3 Events, Awards, and Legislation.
Capitalize the names of historical and special events, historical periods, and awards (but not common nouns that may follow the names).
Civil War |
Nobel Prize |
Civil War era |
Nobel Prize winner |
Declaration of Helsinki |
Special Olympics |
Equal Rights Amendment |
Title IX |
Lasker Award |
10.3.4 Eponyms and Words Derived From Proper Nouns.
With eponyms, capitalize the proper name but not the common noun that follows it (see 15.0, Eponyms).
Breslow thickness |
Papanicolaou test |
Down syndrome |
Trendelenburg position |
Most words derived from proper nouns are not capitalized. In general, follow the current edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary or Dorland’s or Stedman’s medical dictionary.
arabic numerals |
mendelian |
candidiasis |
parkinsonism |
darwinian |
petri dish |
india ink |
roman numerals |
10.3.5 Proprietary Names.
Capitalize trademarks, proprietary names of drugs, and brand names of manufactured products and equipment. Do not capitalize generic names or descriptive terms. Do not include trademark and copyright symbols after proprietary and brand names (see 5.6.15.9, Use of Trademarked Names in Publication).
Each study patient was given 200 mg of diphenhydramine (Benadryl; McNeil Consumer Healthcare) as a sleep aid.
10.3.6 Organisms.
Capitalize the formal name of a genus when used in the singular, with or without a species name. Capitalize formal genus names but not traditional generic designations (eg, streptococci) or derived adjectives (streptococcal) (see 14.14.1.11, Collective Genus Terms). Do not capitalize the name of a species, variety, or subspecies. Do capitalize phylum, class, order, and family (see 14.14, Organisms and Pathogens). For capitalization of virus names, see 14.14.3, Virus Nomenclature.
10.3.7 Seasons, Deities, Holidays.
Do not capitalize the names of the seasons. Capitalize the names of specific deities and their manifestations.
Allah |
Jesus Christ |
Ganesh |
Nature |
God or Goddess (when used in a monotheistic sense) |
Shiva |
the goddess Athena |
spring winter |
the Holy Spirit |
Zeus |
Capitalize holidays and calendar events.
Beltane |
Mother’s Day |
Christmas |
New Year’s Eve |
Eid al-Fitr |
Passover |
Fourth of July |
Ramadan |
Good Friday |
Rosh Hashanah |
Kwanzaa |
Thanksgiving |
Labor Day |
World AIDS Day |
10.3.8 Tests.
The exact and complete titles of tests and subscales of tests should be capitalized. The word test is not usually capitalized except when it is part of the official name of the test. Always verify exact names of tests with the author or with reference sources.
Cox-Stewart trend test |
McNemar test |
Fisher exact test |
Mini-Mental State Examination |
McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities |
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory |
10.3.9 Official Names.
Capitalize the official titles of organizations, businesses, conferences, congresses, institutions, and government agencies. Do not capitalize the conjunctions, articles, or prepositions of 3 or fewer letters contained within these names. For names of institutions, do not capitalize the unless it is part of the official title.
Boka Restaurant Group |
the International Subcommittee on Viral Nomenclature |
Chicago Board of Education |
Knox College |
the Communist Party |
MacArthur Foundation |
Eighth International Congress on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication |
Northwestern Memorial Hospital The Ohio State University |
Federal Bureau of Investigation |
Quaker Oats Corporation Society for Scholarly Publishing |
House of Representatives |
the US Navy |
But: the board of trustees, the boards of health, a state representative, the federal government, the navy
In running text, a singular form that is capitalized as part of the official name is usually not capitalized in the plural.
She is chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Funding was received from the departments of pediatrics and neurology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
(See 2.3.3, Author Affiliations, for an example of capitalization of department titles in an affiliation.)
10.3.10 Titles and Degrees of Persons.
Capitalize a person’s title when it precedes the person’s name but not when it follows the name.
Program Chair Allison Hemmings is to be congratulated for our successful meeting.
Allison Hemmings was named program chair at the 2015 annual meeting.
Dr Colvin served as principal investigator.
Principal Investigator Douglas Colvin, MD, directed the SIPR trial.
Capitalize academic degrees when abbreviated but not when written out.
Sharita Evenson, MA
Sharita Evenson received her master’s degree from Vanderbilt University.