When Do You Capitalize Names?

Got an editing question? Author Katie O’Sullivan has an answer!

If you have a question for Katie you can email her at katie.osullivan@yahoo.com

One of our CWO readers writes:

My editor and I keep disagreeing over proper names. In my memoir, I keep trying to make “Dad” capitalized, but half the time the editor tells me I’m wrong. Isn’t Dad always a proper noun?

Dad is always a proper noun. But. When you write about your dad, or my dad, those aren’t proper names.

Think of it more as a job description. If you use a pronoun preceding the noun, you aren’t using the word “dad” as a name, but more as a job description. The same is true of the words grandmother or mom or auntie.

The easiest way to check yourself is to look for the possessive pronoun. If you are claiming that person with “my” or “our,” then the word becomes a title and not the person themselves.

If you could substitute a name for the word (say, substitute “William” for “Dad”) then it should be capitalized. You wouldn’t say “my Barbara,” just like you wouldn’t say “my Mom.” You would write either “my mom” or “Mom.”

And as always, if you have any question about capitalization, don’t rely on spellcheck. Ask your editor. She knows what she’s talking about.