Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls Capitalizing nicknames, terms of endearment, and epithets

Well, as everyone knows, I'm a expert on capital letters. Obviously. Just look at... Oh, never mind.

Here's the thing. When I'm writing dialogue, I tend to capitalize certain words which most other people leave lower case. Several BRs have called me on it, but I always stick with my own method. I explain my reasoning, and they either agree with me or simply choose to let the matter drop. I'm not always sure which.

The sort of words I'm talking about are "honey," "son," and "dear."

Most people would write it this way:

******

Perry looked at him. "Now, son, you can't just expect a man to hire you when you come in off the streets, even with credentials like this."

---

"I'm sorry, honey. I did eat the last of the chocolate ice cream."

---

"Yes, dear. I'll take care of it."

---

"Aww, come here, kiddo."

******

I, however, would have capitalized Son, Honey, Dear, and possibly Kiddo. The way I see it, these words stand in place of a single specific proper name. You'd capitalize a nickname. You'd capitalize "Mom" or "Dad." You'd capitalize a title such as "Your Highness." You'd capitalize an epithet ("The Great One," for example). So, shouldn't words with a similar function also be capitalized?

If anyone has a solid grammatical source (not that these things are infallible or irrefutable. Often, they contradict each other on some of the finer points), I'd be interested to know. Otherwise, I'm just generally interested in how FoLCs at large see things.

So, you know the routine. Vote in the poll, add any additional thoughts in a reply. Thanks for your time.

Paul

I capitalize nicknames that are specific to that person. If a particular person has the nickname of "Buddy", and that's what everyone calls him, I capitalize it. If I'm talking to someone I don't know, and say, "Hey, buddy, could you move your car?", I don't capitalize it.

- Vicki

I agree with Vicki.

And so does this site:

I agree with Vicki, too.

AnnaBtG.

What Rivka said is what I tend to do, though I never check rules so I just go by whatever feels right... but I had to comment on this example:



PJ

When I came to Canada, I had a very severe problem with capitals. I refused to use them. It seemed like a horrible waste of time because there is no such concept in Hebrew, which I was used to.

Then my teacher yelled at me a couple of (hundred) times, and I've developed a bug inside of me that says, "Capitalize! Capitalize! Capitalize!"

So now, even though I sort of know it's correct not to capitalize them, I can't bring myself not to. Same with nationalities and days of the week in French: I just can't bring myself to not capitalizing them. French teacher hasn't yelled at me yet, though.

So I capitalize them like Paul, but maybe now I'll stop.

Julie

Paul, I'm with you 110%.

Julie, maybe it's just because in french, you don't capitalize the days of the week nor the months.

Carole

As the site Rivka quoted says, forms of address such as 'dear', 'honey', 'son', 'sweetheart', 'my little tornado' etc are never capitalised. They aren't names or proper nouns. For whatever reason - custom, tradition - forms of address such as 'Mom'/'Mum', 'Dad', 'Granny' etc are considered to be proper nouns, and these do get capitalised.

If I were GEing a story in which someone had capitalised 'son' or 'honey' etc, I would point it out as something to be corrected.


Wendy

Eek! I find it slightly alarming to discover how many people have chosen to capitalise the words in Paul's list. The fact is, so far as I know, to capitalise these words is considered wrong by the vast majority of people concerned with the written word. (/me hides under desk while waiting for the onslaught of comments disagreeing with that statement ).

One can't find a logical justification for every single spelling or grammar rule, and often, it's simply the majority rule which applies. For example, there's no logical reason that I can think of for spelling 'wrong' with a 'w', other than the fact that convention dictates that we spell it that way. The same goes for capitalising endearments, etc.

The only word in Paul's list which I think you could legitimately capitalise would be 'son' - but only if you were referring the Son of God.

Yvonne

What I meant is that I know it's incorrect to capitalise them, but I can't bring myself not to (even if it's wrong).

Julie

Oops! Knew I was smart

Carole

I did click "Buddy" and "Skip" because I figured they were proper names . Now, I can see buddy not being a name - "Hey, buddy, pass the ketchup."
But I can't see how you call someone skip without it being a name. Otherwise, it's a verb "Hey, Skip, skip over here!"
But yes, there is a rule not to capitalize honey, sweetheart, dearest, lovey or any other term even when your character is addressing them directly.

Artemis

Artemis wrote:

That's true. I have to admit that it never occurred to me that anyone would be called 'Skip', either as a name or a nickname. Really? What about 'Hop' or 'Jump'?


Wendy

Buddy and Skip are both nicknames I've heard of.

I even thought that Sport and Squirt could, theoretically, be nicknames. (I can see a big brother calling his little brother "Squirt", and the name catching on, so soon everyone is calling him that.)

But I wasn't sure if that was how Paul intended them in his poll. That is why I wrote my post explaining how I capitalize if its a nickname and don't if it's not.

- Vicki

O.K., I posit the idea that if a general term such as "buddy", "squirt", "stretch", "wiggles", etc, has devolved to the point that a specific indidual is known in general by that noun, it is then a proper name and should be capitalized. If it is just a replacement term (often derisive) of a person, then it shouldn't be. "Hey, x-ray eyes, come over here and lend me some of your super strength."
I did know a very tall fellow who had been called "Stretch" since High-School. We called him that and I would then capitalize the word "Stretch." Now where life became interesting was that since he was a Navy captain, how you addressed him reflected both your role and his role in the conversations at hand. At work he was Captain, or Captain Youngblood. In the bar, he was Stretch. Or if it was just the two of you in a casual conversation, it was Stretch.

Artemis
Memory just struck. I called my son "tiger" when he was little, but it never was his name. If I ever wrote it down, I would caitalize it. It was his nickname.