Naming grammar

[Nick B]

In the current work there is a major mercenary company and I wonder about names and grammar. I won't use their real name here as we arn't releasing anything as yet about the work.

So - if a company/team were called The Harlequins, is it okay to refer to them individually as Harlequins, or a Harlequin? If there were a small group of them off doing something would you refer to them as the Harlequins rather than The Harlequins?
It just feels a bit cumbersome capitalizing The every time when not actually using the company name itself but referring to individuals or small groups.
Am I making any sense?

 

[JonH]

This is a style question, and you can argue over style indefinitely.

I wouldn't capitalize the T in your example, and I think it's fine to talk about a Harlequin.

But I also wouldn't be precious if an editor wanted to change it.

 

[paranoid marvin]

A harlequin is a comic character; a Harlequin is a member of your group. So in my opinion capitalisation is necessary. Obviously it's unlikely to cause confusion, but in my opinion a Roundhead is not a roundhead, and a Cavalier is not a cavalier.

"Don't you realise you fool that I'm a Harlequin?"

has a different meaning to

"Don't you realise you fool that I'm a harlequin?"

When you are talking about a group of Harlequins I wouldn't capitalise the 'The', in the same way that I wouldn't refer to the Pope as The Pope. Having said that, if it was part of an official title (eg Her Majesty The Queen) then I would capitalise 'the'.

Calling them individually 'Harlequins', just like in my example above where Cavaliers and Roundheads referred to themselves as such. Of course, in a case such as the Mafia, indviduals would refer to themselves differently. It all depends on what you want to do - and of course it is highly likely that their enemies would use rather different names!

 

[Bowler1]

I'm Bowler1
I'm a Harlequin.


I'd say your falling into a style choice here as military ranks can be both Capital and not, which is a close example. Anything that can be used to refer to as a person (Captain Bowler, Harlequin Bowler) I would use a capital. However, I also know it could be captain Bowler, so why not harlequin Bowler.


Yet... if these Harlequins are important to your story why not back stop this importance and use capitals. A subtle inflection, but possibly an important one.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

So - if a company/team were called The Harlequins, is it okay to refer to them individually as Harlequins, or a Harlequin? If there were a small group of them off doing something would you refer to them as the Harlequins rather than The Harlequins?

I think you have it exactly right, there. The group as a whole is The Harlequins, a small bunch of them would be Harlequins/the Harlequins, and one alone would be a Harlequin. Sounds right to me.

 

[Nick B]

Thanks

 

[farntfar]

It has to be considered on a case by case basis.
The Harlem Globetrotters contains a number of people, each of which is a Harlem Globetrotter, because that's why it was named as such.

But Reuters doesn't contain a bunch of people each of which is a Reuter. Reuter was the name of the bloke wot begun it, so it should really be Reuter's.
McDonalds was similarly started by one or several people called McDonald.

But could you call someone who works for IBM an international business machine or for Collins a Collin, or who plays for the Hammers (a London soccer club, actually West Ham) a hammer?

 

[PanGalacticBlog]

I think it can be anything, look on Earth for example, people break all kinds of rules and call groups of people all kinds of things. In reality they don't follow rules, they use anything, and whatever takes hold, is what it is.

In my stories, I'm sending the main character to planets all over the place and I'm making names up. I just write down the first thing that comes to mind, so if the made up planet is Tara, I might like to call them Taran's, not sure if that violates rules or not, but it's the year 5973, who knows what the grammar is then and there.


May our journeys continue far,

(☯) Slobodan(Dan)