Q. Does the CMOS have a preferred spelling list of prominent Iraqi proper names, cities, and towns? Different publications use different spellings,
but I would like to adhere to the CMOS preferences.
A. No, sorry. CMOS is not the right place to list current spellings of the world’s cities—such a
list would be out of date before the book hit the shelves. Style sheets from newspapers or news services like the Associated
Press are better sources for this type of information.
Q. Many of the products that my company offers employ midcaps (internal capital letters) as well as partial italics—for
example, CustomerCares. In 8.153, I see that Chicago style is to preserve midcaps in company or product names—do you recommend
the same for italics?
A. No, we don’t. Once you start trying to accommodate typographic styles, it’s hard
to stop. There are companies that use bold font or small caps or a backward R—and how about those logos where the first letter is small and then the letters get progressively larger,
or where the letters have little wings on them? Better to look the other way.
Q. I am a translator and in my work I always have to deal with proper names of works of art, locations, streets, cities, etc.
What is the rule of thumb for that? Leave in the original language or translate into English? I have seen both. Would you
kindly help me?
A. I’m afraid there’s no easy answer, because the decision depends on what you believe
will be most useful to the readers you expect to read that work. If you’re translating a scholarly text
for specialists, readers will want the original. If you’re translating a spy novel, they won’t
necessarily. Sometimes you’ll want both to appear right there in the text (one in parentheses); other
times you’ll want to hide one or the other in a note. It’s a decision that should
be made with the author’s input, if possible.
Q. My job entails editing and Americanizing books from the UK. We normally change British spellings to American for our audience,
like defence to defense or centre to center. But what do I do in cases where one of these words is part of an official name, as in Ministry of Defence? or such-and-such
Centre? If I leave the British spelling, it looks wrong compared to the text, but if I change it to the American spelling,
it is wrong according to the organization.
A. Don’t worry—neither will look wrong. The text will look American and the name
will look British. You can’t change the names of organizations, and most readers will know that.
Q. I am proofreading a nonfiction book which introduces new people in an inconsistent manner: sometimes they are introduced
by first name, sometimes last, sometimes by a shortened form of their name. Sometimes the book goes several pages before completely
identifying the person. Is there a rule which governs how names should be handled?
A. At proofs stage, you can query any omissions that cause problems, but it may be too late to insert complete identifications.
Unless the point is to keep the reader guessing, it’s best to provide the full name at the first mention,
along with other introductory details. After that, surnames ought to be enough, although sometimes it’s
good to remind the reader. And of course some familiar names need no introduction.
Q. We are working on a biography of Pope John Paul II in which the author refers to the subject alternately as Wojtyla and Karol.
The question is, should it be made consistent throughout?
A. Yes, but consistent with what? The name should conform to the context. For instance, if the passage is about the pope’s
childhood and refers to a brother or sister by first name, the author may have written “Karol”
for consistency. In any passage where others are called by first names or surnames for reasons of clarity or convention, the
author may have chosen accordingly.
Q. When spelling last names, are there rules? We have family names like LaFleur—should there be a space
between the a and the f? Should the L be in caps or lowercase? When spelling place-names, there is a space—Los Angeles would never be spelled
without the space—right? I am confused—can you help?
A. Unfortunately, I cannot help, because there are no rules. Each family gets to decide. If you check a phone book, you'll see
many variations of such names.
Q. When one makes an adjective out of a proper name, does one retain the capital letter? For example, should “gram-negative,”
the adjective describing a bacterium showing a certain result on Gram’s test, actually be written “Gram-negative”
(as my spellchecker seems to “think”)?
A. Many such terms do take initial upper case. CMOS notes, however, that “personal, national, or geographical names, and words derived from such names,
are often lowercased when used with a nonliteral meaning,” as in “dutch oven” or “french
fries.” In the case of “gram-negative,” Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.) supports you by lowercasing, although a brief online survey suggests that uppercasing is also accepted by authorities.
Q. I wonder what your ruling is on using Latin-based (but non-Latin) characters as part of a person’s
name. At my job, I am often required to write about Turkish Prime Minister ErdoÄŸan.
English publications usually write it as “Erdogan,” but this has the side effect
of people pronouncing it “Er-do-gan” and looking foolish. I would argue we should
write it “ErdoÄŸan,” as this more closely
reflects the name’s pronunciation (as well as its actual spelling), and the alphabet is still comprehensible
to an English speaker. However, what is your take?
A. If your typesetters can set the correct letter, by all means use it. Although writers who quote you may type a plain g, not knowing how to reproduce the special character, there’s nothing you can do about that. Whenever
it’s appropriate, help your readers out by providing the pronunciation in parentheses or in a note.
Q. When using proper names in a book, what is the rule for subsequent use of that name? For example, in a book that mentions
Herbert Hoover, if I use his full name the first time it is mentioned, and then do so again 20 pages later, can I just say
“Hoover” or must I say “Herbert Hoover”?
What is the longest you can go without repeating the full name? Does the beginning of a new chapter affect this?
A. An editor must develop a feel for the pacing of a document, the familiarity of a particular name, and the likelihood of any
confusion on the part of the reader. For example, it shouldn’t be necessary to repeat Herbert Hoover’s
first name as often as that of a more obscure person, although if the text discusses other members of the Hoover family as
well, you may need to use “Herbert” frequently.
Chicago Style Q&A: New Questions and Answers
