Abbreviated names: should I put a period after the initial or not?

[Realspiritik]

I'm writing a short non-fiction piece about an experience I once had with a physician. I'm not including the doctor's full name (for obvious reasons). I've been referring to him as "Dr. S." throughout, but now I'm wondering if I should ditch the period after the "S" and go with "Dr. S" to make the punctuation less cumbersome.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Jen

 

[CMBright]

I might be old school, but I would go with Dr. S. for the abbreviation. I am curious, if you decide to omit the period, why wouldn't you use Dr S and omit both periods since they are both abbreviations?

Alternately, you could use a pseudonym, for example Dr. Smith with a parenthetical [not his real name] to indicate it is a false name.

 

[Catriona Grace]

Hmm, I'm inclined to go with Dr. S, no period. First, Dr. S is a nickname, and nicknames don't need periods to show they are abbreviations of a full name. Second, Dr. S would eliminate the need for double dots should the last word of the sentence be Dr. S.. That looks weird. Third, one would save time and space by eliminating the period. I hate typing periods after initials. Personal quirk.

That being said, I can also make an argument for adding the period.

 

[Maryn]

To me, Dr. S reads cleaner.

 

[Realspiritik]

I might be old school, but I would go with Dr. S. for the abbreviation. I am curious, if you decide to omit the period, why wouldn't you use Dr S and omit both periods since they are both abbreviations?

Alternately, you could use a pseudonym, for example Dr. Smith with a parenthetical [not his real name] to indicate it is a false name.

I'm old school, too, but I'm trying to resist the formality of academic writing, where the period would definitely be called for. Even Ph.D. is usually just PhD these days. (I struggle with that.)

Good suggestion about the pseudonym. I hadn't thought of that!

 

[Realspiritik]

Hmm, I'm inclined to go with Dr. S, no period. First, Dr. S is a nickname, and nicknames don't need periods to show they are abbreviations of a full name. Second, Dr. S would eliminate the need for double dots should the last word of the sentence be Dr. S.. That looks weird. Third, one would save time and space by eliminating the period. I hate typing periods after initials. Personal quirk.

That being said, I can also make an argument for adding the period.

When I was trying to figure out what to do with the period in Dr. S's name, I stumbled on a site that insists you should absolutely never put two periods in a row at the end of a sentence. So I guess your instincts on "Dr. S.." are right!

 

[Realspiritik]

To me, Dr. S reads cleaner.

Hi, Maryn. Yes, I'm starting to think Dr. S would easier to read. Thanks for your suggestion!

Jen

 

[Fi Webster]

I have a doctor IRL I always call "Dr. G"—never with a period unless it's at the end of the sentence.

 

[Tazlima]

I might be old school, but I would go with Dr. S. for the abbreviation. I am curious, if you decide to omit the period, why wouldn't you use Dr S and omit both periods since they are both abbreviations?

Alternately, you could use a pseudonym, for example Dr. Smith with a parenthetical [not his real name] to indicate it is a false name.

Lol, they could also go REALLY old school and go Dr. S______.

Confused the heck out of me the first time I saw that in an old book.

 

[Fi Webster]

I might be old school, but I would go with Dr. S. for the abbreviation. I am curious, if you decide to omit the period, why wouldn't you use Dr S and omit both periods since they are both abbreviations?

But they're not both abbreviations. "Dr." is an abbreviation: the whole word "doctor" is vocalized when you read it aloud. Just like when you read "etc." you say "et cetera."

The letter S is just S, not an abbreviation for anything. It's not a shortened form of a name that one can expand when reading it, because the reader doesn't know the doctor's name. For all the reader knows, this doctor's name doesn't even start with S. "Dr. S" is like a nickname with a second part that's an initial, one letter long.

Tangentially related: the Guardian style guide for abbreviations in names with initials says not to put periods after the initials. That makes sense to me, because when we read "TS Eliot," for example, we don't expand it to "Thomas Stearns Eliot"—we just read "TS Eliot."

 

[Unimportant]

I'm writing a short non-fiction piece about an experience I once had with a physician. I'm not including the doctor's full name (for obvious reasons). I've been referring to him as "Dr. S." throughout, but now I'm wondering if I should ditch the period after the "S" and go with "Dr. S" to make the punctuation less cumbersome.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Jen

For me as a reader, to parse each sentence, it would flow easier if you removed the period. But, as long as you're consistent, it probably won't matter that much -- in the end, the editor would ask it to be in whatever their house style is.

 

[WritingGirl]

I've heard it's a location thing, with the dot being more common in American English and less in British English. As an Australian I've seen both, but I'm more used to no dot.