Italicising proper names?

[Brian G Turner]

Something I'm currently unsure of - when should you italicise proper names?

From my reading, I've noticed that the names of books, or names of ships, may be italicised in a piece of fiction.

I've also used it for a named sword.

I'm now wondering if I should apply that to tavern names, and the names of streets?

I've not done so, so far, but now I'm beginning to think I should - at least for the former.

Character and place names (ie, cities, kingdoms,) have not been italicised.

However, I've not been able to find a guide on how to apply the rules, or what flexibility may be involved.

Any suggestions?

 

[HareBrain]

This suggests italicising the names of publications, works of art, trains, cars, ships and planes. (I assume where the individual object is named, so HMS Duncan is in italics but Type 45 destroyer is not. Another example, "The B29 Superfortress, Enola Gay"). And I think that's pretty much how I've seen it done. So your named sword would probably qualify (as an individual work of art/craft), but tavern and street names wouldn't.

Names and phrases in a foreign language would also usually be italicised.

 

[Overread]

I think the general rule is that there is no rule unless you're writing a scientific document with latin names.

Otherwise I would say that its a tool that you can use how you want, the key being that by using it you're drawing additional attention to a specific information group.


This could be:
1) Named objects, places, things

2) A specific group of things - eg it might be the name of all magical items; therefore allowing you to introduce this idea early on and then later in the book you can name mundane or obvious (to the character) magical items as magical without having to tell the reader in the text (because the italics are doing it for you)

3) Mind Voice or other non-verbal forms of communication often use it. Mind-thoughts are another use.


It's basically a tool that you can use in a number of ways, so long as you don't try to use them all at once otherwise it loses its effect.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Italics are a pain. But here'swhat I've gleaned.

We italicise proper names of things that are instantly recognisable eg often The New York Times. But not always.

Names of vehicles / ships but not brand names. So Enterprise, would be Italicised, but if it had been made by Toyota, Toyota wouldn't be. But again most Trek books don't italicise the name.

Sometimes we use them for foreign phrases such as deja vu, when we want to make a special point of them. But that seems to be highly hit and miss as to which phrases are italicised and when.

Mostly though I just italicise to make certain words significant. I consider it the equivalent of air quotes when someone's talking, a way of suggesting that the words / phrase aren't exactly plainly meant and in fact may be sarcasticly used etc.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[JonH]

I think literary titles should be italicised in non-fiction, especially when they are parts of lists, such as scientific references. I wouldn't go overboard in fiction. I think italicising the name of a vehicle is acceptable, but unnecessary.

Tolkien went heavy on the italics and italicised pub names, The Green Dragon and The Prancing Pony. However, he did not italicise sword names: Sting, Anduril or Glamdring.

 

[Kissmequick]

Ultimately this will come down to house style, so I'd say just be consistent and it'll get changed when it needs to.

But generally, ships are italicised, or as said above maybe The Times. I've not seen swords or pubs* etc italicised though

But like I say, just be consistent. The house will change it to their style - I get a style sheet to not e all this for my books.


*except i LOTR

 

[BelgarionOz]

I use italics for names of ships and such, but I have also used it when i want a character to really emphasise something. In those cases where and ! just isn't enough. Or if there is a definite overemphasis on a particular word in the middle of a sentence.

Like that.

 

[MatterSack]

AFAIK, the only nouns that need to be italicised are scientific names/descriptors (e.g., Homo sapiens sapiens).

I like to reserve italics for character thoughts, and for emphasis during normal speech (as mentioned above), but it's totally up to the writer I believe. Keep in mind that proper nouns will already be capitalised though.

 

[Mouse]

What HB said. I usually italicise my pub names too, out of habit, but I'm guessing I picked that up from Tolkien!

 

[Kylara]

Coming from someone currently on a break from slogging through essays on literature, I am pretty sure that names of books should ALWAYS be italicised OR underlined (personal preference on choice).

Names of things should be italicised - so HMS Destroyer of Dreams but a Destroyer class ship is fine. (IE the Destroyer class ship, Destroyer of Dreams was captained by a bit of an idiot).

Place names should not be italicised, (unless it is the title of a work). Artwork titles should be italicised (or underlined, again preference). Newspaper names should be italicised (or underlined, again preference).

Any foreign words should be italicised as well - to ensure that the reader knows it is a foreign word and can go and look it up if they don't understand it. Scientific classes should be italicised (never sure if that is because they are Latinate or Grecian words or if they would be italicised if they were in English).

Then added to this, people italicise for emphasis, which is why one of my lecturers underlines all of the above (except foreigns which are in italics) because she is a fan of using textual examples and adding emphasis via italicising stuff in the quote. eg """Mary was never truly alone in the house" (italics added for emphasis)""

Oh and a bunch of old novels don't do names or place names, they do a capital letter followed by an em dash so as to not accidentally suggest that the place or people were specific areas or people...not that it didn't stop people from making theories about who the characters may be...

 

[Brian G Turner]

Cheers for the replies - I didn't want to trust eHow as a source, but it seems like I'm pretty much following the right path.

 

[Vertigo]

I don't really know how italics are meant to be used for proper names but I bow to the previous posters' knowledge on that. However I do have a personal opinion on it and that is that I hate it with a vengeance. Whenever I see italics in my reading I mentally emphasise that word and then I go on doing so when it is a proper name and I'm entering my house - Giuthas - with unwarranted emphasis.

 

[Tony Jones]

I agree with most points made above. In my case my style is italic for emphasis in fiction but non-fiction I reserve it for titles of works particularly when reviewing something. Of course house style wins and there are no simple rules that work for all cases

 

[BelgarionOz]

Any foreign words should be italicised as well -

You realise we're speaking English here right? It's practically a borrowed language.

I'm not sure who made that rule up, but it seems overly cumbersome when you consider the number of words our language steals from others and doesn't change the meaning of one jot (and probably didn't bother to pay royalties either; thieving gits!). Italicising every time you used kindergarten, technique, entrepreneur to name just three off the top of my head, would get confusing quite quickly.

 

[barrett1987]

My pubs are in italics. I'm racking my brain but that is about it in my ms.

 

[HareBrain]

Italicising every time you used kindergarten, technique, entrepreneur to name just three off the top of my head, would get confusing quite quickly.

I appreciate you were being humorous, but in case other readers get confused, you wouldn't italicise these words, at least not now, because they have been fully assimilated into English. There was a time when kindergarten would have been italicised, same as coup and so on (you can find words like these italicised in 19thC books), because at the time they were clearly foreign.

I guess a good rule of thumb would be that if a word or phrase isn't in an English dictionary, italicise it. If it is, and not even marked as belonging to a foreign language (like coup d'etat in my dictionary) then don't. Between those there's a big grey area I'm not going to venture an opinion on. Something like savoir-faire, for example, is pretty borderline.

 

[BelgarionOz]

Well I was trying to be serious... in a humorous way. I hope that came across.

I think what I was trying to say in a roundabout (and probably long winded, knowing me) way was that doing that would seem to be to be breaking up things too much. Italics should in a text be a pretty rare thing. To me it should only really be used for proper names of things (hopefully ones that are important to the story in some way) or for that added emotional emphasis. Doing every foreign words makes me think that people would be stopping and looking up words all the time, which would disrupt their appreciation of the whole story.

To me at least.

 

[HareBrain]

Doing every foreign words makes me think that people would be stopping and looking up words all the time, which would disrupt their appreciation of the whole story.

But genuinely foreign words/phrases (rather than those that have become part of English) are very rare in fiction -- in the last few novels I've read they've come up maybe once in a hundred pages (or that's my vague impression).

And why would a foreign word being in italics influence whether a reader who didn't know the word looked it up?

I agree with your general point that italics should be used sparingly, especially when emphasis is intended. (Something that annoys me about most comic books is the way so many words are emphasised in bold, which makes for a very choppy reading experience, and lots of melodramatic italics can do the same). But I also think readers are trained to quickly recognise when italics are intended to indicate emphasis, and when they're used for "technical reasons", such as the names of newspapers.

 

[Pyan]

I've a lot to do with plant names in my job, and that's a nightmare.

If you're just talking about planting something in general, there's no italics or capitals:

"I've just planted a sanseveria".

But if you're (say) ordering the same thing from a nursery, the rules kick in: genus and species are italicised, and the genus is capitalised as well:

"I'd like to order a Sansevieria". - "I'd like to order a Sansevieria trifasciata".

If it's a naturally occurring variation, the variety name is italicised, but only capitalised if the variety is a proper name (eg, that of the discoverer): the "var" to show it's a variety is never italicised:

"I'd like to order a Sansevieria trifasciata var. Laurentii".

However, if it's a cultivar (eg, produced in a nursery by cross-breeding), the cultivar name is capitalised and put into single speech marks:

"I'd like to order a Sansevieria trifasciata 'Golden Hahnii'".


Good job this is only for plants - or you'd be reading about a Gladius elvenii 'Sting'!


Source: Horticulture 202 Laboratory 3



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