Possessive with names ending in 's'

pingle · Jul 31, 2019

I change my mind on this one all the time.

My book is set in ancient Rome. There are a lot of names ending in 's'

I know there are disagreements about this, so there isn't a right answer. But I still need to make a choice. I currently don't add the second 's' because this seems quite common when dealing with ancient names. (Which is why I'm posting this in the historical forum)

But I'm curious to see if anyone has any advice or has noticed trends in their historical reading.

Alessandra Kelley · Jul 31, 2019

I just add an apostrophe after the s.

Romulus’
Gaius’
Euripides’
Erinyes’
Darius’

pharm · Jul 31, 2019

pingle said:
I change my mind on this one all the time.

I have search-and-replaced one or the other approach throughout my manuscript at least twice. This has driven me crazy since I was a little kid and was taught "classical" names (whatever that means) ending in s are supposed to have only an apostrophe, while modern ones get an extra s. It doesn't help that some names sound better one way, and some the other. Or that we're not always consistent in pronunciation.

pingle · Aug 1, 2019

Alessandra Kelley said:
I just add an apostrophe after the s.

Romulus’
Gaius’
Euripides’
Erinyes’
Darius’

Excellent. That's what I've mostly been doing (though coming across some rogue extra s' is what inspired me to start this thread). I'm reassured now. Thanks

pingle · Aug 1, 2019

pharm said:
I have search-and-replaced one or the other approach throughout my manuscript at least twice. This has driven me crazy since I was a little kid and was taught "classical" names (whatever that means) ending in s are supposed to have only an apostrophe, while modern ones get an extra s. It doesn't help that some names sound better one way, and some the other. Or that we're not always consistent in pronunciation.

Ah, I am not alone! Yes, I agree, some look better with that extra s, which does seem to make me doubt myself.

Lakey · Aug 1, 2019

Alessandra Kelley said:
I just add an apostrophe after the s.

Romulus’
Gaius’
Euripides’
Erinyes’
Darius’

This looked terribly wrong to me so I looked it up. Chicago Manual Of Style says to add ’s to make the possessive of a singular name (so, Jones’s pet wombat, but the Joneses’ pet wombat). However, there are variances among other style manuals and probably cross-pondal variances as well. According to Perdue OWL:

The generally accepted convention for most academic styles (including CMOS, APA, and MLA) is to add apostophe + s to the singular form of the word, even if it ends in "s." Non-academic styles, such as AP, suggest simply adding an apostrophe to the end of a word that ends in "s." Please check the style guide of whatever format you're using to make sure you're in line with their recommendations.

dpaterso · Aug 1, 2019

I always find Strunk's rules of usage helpy,

https://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk.html#1

Now it's automatic, I use 's whether I like the look of it or not.

-Derek

lizmonster · Aug 1, 2019

FWIW I was an instinctive 's user, but my publisher's style guide said s'.

AW Admin · Aug 1, 2019

Possessives ending in s are a usage/style guide issue.

Pick one style and use it; that way if you publisher prefers another style, you've at least been consistent and it's easy to change.

pingle · Aug 1, 2019

AW Admin said:
Possessives ending in s are a usage/style guide issue.

Pick one style and use it; that way if you publisher prefers another style, you've at least been consistent and it's easy to change.

I needed this advice, I was starting to twist myself into knots again.

Thank you everyone. It seems a divisive question but interesting to see that both styles are used.

War Monkey · Aug 23, 2019

Chicago Manual of style (which is used for historical works) is 's for ALL possessives.
Another option would be to use the Latin genitive of -i (which is what I often default to when I'm writing historical stuff about the Romans).

Sonya Heaney · Aug 25, 2019

S'S is incorrect in British and Commonwealth English, so S' doesn't look "terrible" to me; it looks right. When the Bridget Jones' Diary movie came out there was a big uproar in the UK (I was living in London at the time) because the posters were done in American style: "Bridget Jones's Diary".

It depends what country you're looking to get published in. I actually redid an entire manuscript's grammar/quotation marks etc. when I sent it to two different countries!

Earthling · Aug 27, 2019

Sonya Heaney said:
S'S is incorrect in British and Commonwealth English, so S' doesn't look "terrible" to me; it looks right. When the Bridget Jones' Diary movie came out there was a big uproar in the UK (I was living in London at the time) because the posters were done in American style: "Bridget Jones's Diary".

It depends what country you're looking to get published in. I actually redid an entire manuscript's grammar/quotation marks etc. when I sent it to two different countries!

My UK publisher changed my S's to S'Ss. I suppose it depends which style guide they use!

Possessive with names ending in 's'

pingle

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

pharm

profoundly de minimis

pingle

pingle

Lakey

professional dilettante

dpaterso

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

lizmonster

Possibly A Mermaid Queen

AW Admin

pingle

War Monkey

Sonya Heaney

Earthling

I come in peace