Comments on: Courtesy and Capitalization

By: Kim

Kim — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 21:54:39 +0000

There is something that really irritates me about nonstandard capitalizations. While I can more easily accept iPod and eBay, I have more of a problem with bell hooks. What bothers in the most is that if “iPod” or “eBay” are at the beginning of sentences, the first letter is also capitalized. (”EBay is my favorite place to shop.”) However, when “bell hooks” is at the beginning of a sentence, the first letter of her name is not capitalized even though it is the beginning of the sentence. (I.e. “bell hooks is a great postmodern author.”) That’s what bothers me.

By: D. SKye Hodges

D. SKye Hodges — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 14:33:19 +0000

yes, everyone that hears my explanation agrees that my name (with the capitalization) suites me, and when they send me emails, etc, they always address me as: SKye. Do they do that as a courtesy, or do they do that just because it is my name… I don’t know, but they accept it, and they do it.

By: yami

yami — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 22:58:37 +0000

And have you found anyone else who agrees with you about that K?

By: D. SKye Hodges

D. SKye Hodges — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 22:44:49 +0000

A friend of mine pointed me to this page. Because, as you can see, I spell my name: SKye, I have since 1993, the earliest record of this goes at least back to 2001: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://geocities.com/d_skye_hodges even though the page doesn’t display, the title in the web browser does. Anyway, I don’t think that it is “distasteful” as one person mentioned, in my case I use it to distinguish what _I_PERSONALLY_ consider the feminine: Skye, from the masculine: SKye (I think the Capital K gives it masculinity). Anyway, thanks for the thoughts on capitalization. I’m still keeping my name: D. SKye Hodges

By: yami

yami — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 16:02:00 +0000

I believe ms. hooks is making a statement against authorial ego; as far as I know she uses normal case in her private life (bell hooks is a pseudonym).
If there were a huge trend of people making up funny capitalizations for themselves, I agree that it could be difficult. But I think the existing pressures against such a trend (you have to constantly explain to everyone what you’re doing and why, people keep getting it wrong anyway, they make fun of you for it, etc.) are strong enough that only a handful of people will ever want to buck convention. I mean, I take it that you don’t normally insist on people capitalizing the prime letters of your name, even though you could.
Re: your second comment, all the people I know of who prefer nonstandard capitalization are either public figures or teenage girls. Both classes of people have good reason to carefully control their public image. Maybe it is somewhat distasteful that people present such carefully cultivated images of themselves, but welcome to a culture of celebrity and consumerism! Or in the case of teenage girls, viciousness and misogyny.
Shouldn’t devices also convey their awesomeness in their work, rather than their brand identity?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 15:43:00 +0000

One more thing, about the iPod. Its spelling is part of the branding of the device; capitalizing that second letter helps set it apart (doesn’t it look strange and wrong when people write Ipod or I-Pod)? For a person to do the same thing and try to communicate an image via the spelling of their name just comes across as distasteful. People should convey their awesomeness in their work (which [hH]ooks certainly does).
But I’m willing to admit that I could be wrong.

By: matt

matt — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 15:41:00 +0000

One more thing, about the iPod. It’s spelling is part of the branding of the device; capitalizing that second letter helps set it apart (doesn’t it look strange and wrong when people write Ipod or I-Pod)? For a person to do the same thing and try to communicate an image via the spelling of their name just comes across as distasteful.
But I’m willing to admit that I could be wrong.

By: mATt

mATt — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 15:22:00 +0000

Yami: point taken. I’m sure that breaking a few spelling rules in writing one’s name won’t lead to the collapse of our language. And there is a case to be made to bowing to someone’s preference, especially if they have a good reason for it. So maybe we should just let it be and continue to write bell hooks.
My point is that allowing these rules to be bent doesn’t scale well, unless only certain people are allowed to bend them. If “bell hooks” can insist on a funky capitalization, why can’t I? or anyone else? and then you have to remember everyone’s particular fiat in addition to their name. If there was a good reason for doing so, that might be worthwhile. But I guess I’ll admit that my reason for thinking there isn’t a good reason might ultimately come down to annoyance: Why does bell hooks demand her name be written in lowercase? Because she’s so unique that she has to distinguish herself from the rest of the draff even in the spelling of her name? I think it’s ostentatious. I’m unique, too, dammit!

By: yami

yami — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 14:14:00 +0000

Squiggles which don’t appear in the typesetting equipment are a higher level of imposition than miniscules, to be sure.

By: des luxury yacht

des luxury yacht — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 07:56:00 +0000

Well, names are the property of their owners by established convention, but then there’s the Artist Formerly Known as “Prince”’s quiggle, with which I certainly cannot be arsed.
Egleesh ‘bladets can’t even be bothered with the Sven-G Eriksson, though. I’ve never seen cat yronwode’s name written with any majuscules, though, but I can’t think where I have seen it in print. The Grauniad, I would bet.