1. trevorD

    trevorD Senior Member

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    Are pet names for people capitalized?

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by trevorD, Aug 6, 2022.

    Which is it?

    A) “Don’t you worry your pretty face, Darlin,” he replied. “I just scored us a deal that’ll carry us all for months.”
    B) “Don’t you worry your pretty face, darlin,” he replied. “I just scored us a deal that’ll carry us all for months.”

    Also, if Darlin is short for Darling, is it Darlin or Darlin' (with an apostrophe?)

    What if it's baby instead of darlin? Would it be Baby or baby?

    Thanks!

    Td-
     
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  2. Rad Scribbler

    Rad Scribbler Faber est suae quisque fortunae Contributor

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    I would say even 'pet names' are capitilized - as in (A) above.
    It would also be the same if you referred to someone in the third person - Well, if Darlin thinks so, then ...

    Again, if Baby is a name / pet name, then it would be capitilized.

    Not sure about the abbreviation however, I'm leaning toward the apostrophe at the end.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2022
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  3. Earp

    Earp Contributor Contributor

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    I would say not capitalized if it's a generic term of endearment like darling or honey, and capitalized for a nickname based on the persons name or personality, like Reenie for Maureen, or Mooch. I think the apostrophe is needed for darlin'.
     
  4. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Not capitalized for epithets but capitalized for exclusively used nicknames that sound like epithets?
     
  5. Earp

    Earp Contributor Contributor

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    I've never referred in writing to my nephew, dickweed, but I wouldn't capitalize it.
     
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  6. evild4ve

    evild4ve Critique is stranger than fiction Supporter Contributor

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    Darling with a capital D (or maybe not..!) :-


    darlin' with a small d (warning: explicit lyrics):-


    ==

    It's the difference between a name and a descriptor.
    I think in general it's good for characters to only have one capitalized name - fiction is confusing enough at the best of times.
    Unless someone's having, or being given a nickname is part of the story. But it's often not that interesting a life-event.
    Clark Kent + Superman is okay because it's a secret identity. But if there wasn't a secret identity, and he was Clark Kent, a super man, then capitalizing Superman might be irritating.

    Epithets are okay when they're culturally-established. Angela Merkel is Mutti.
    Establishing them in a story is likely to be a waste of energy.

    I wouldn't do A), and B) needs the apostrophe.
    I think it's usually don't worry your pretty little head. But prettiness is a facial property so this might be an eggcorn.

    An apostrophe on darlin' can be used to mark informal speech according to some dictionaries, which list it separately from darling with a g
    However, an apostrophe on darlin' is often used to mark a working-class or ethnic dialect as other. And I think that's where the dictionary distinction really comes from.
    And personally I dislike anything resembling eye-dialects. I try to write the lines as the speaker would write them, and if they have a dialect then that should be clear from their diction, and the rhythm-of-speech and the order-of-ideas, not the spelling.
    Phonetically, the dropped g is still there - and the vowels change as well. In fact in the dialect we're writing probably every phoneme is different if we look closely enough.
    Apostrophizing some letters from words is usually only a very crude rendition of how the dialect-speaker would actually say them. To be accurate we'd need a phonetic alphabet : /ˈdɑːlɪŋ/ or /ˈdɑɹlɪŋ/

    But having said that, sometimes dialect-pronunciations meet a threshold to be promoted into a dialect-word. And then the speaker would write them differently, and so should we.
    And darlin' might be in that category for some speakers.

    I can't place what dialect the OP is writing from this 1 line. But these are the idioms that other the speaker:-
    (1) worry your pretty little head
    (2) I scored us a
    (3) darlin'

    Google NGRAM wasn't very useful for these:-
    (1) is quite an old idiom. It was known in England in the late 1800s and became a pop song by both Don Cherry (Texan) and Max Bygraves (English) in 1957. I couldn't tell which came first.
    (2) seems to be distinctively American from the late 1800s to 1980.
    (3) I don't think is common in America. I associate it with London and the South, and Australia.

    So a question behind the OP's question might be is this speaker situated in a real human group, or is their dictionan amalgamation of stereotypes?
     
  7. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    You should if he's only referred to as Dickweed. Unless you were calling me a dickweed, in which case, I would call you a double dickweed with a side of assmunch.

    Ah, fun with commas and apositives!
     
  8. Bakkerbaard

    Bakkerbaard Contributor Contributor

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    In the case of 'darlin' I'd go without capitalization. I tend to do this by feel.
    In a definitely unpublished story, I had a girl refer to another girl as 'princess' when they first met, because she was acting like one. Later, they grew much, much closer (and there you have the reason for it staying unpublished) and it became 'Princess', because that was the pet name the first girl used.
    If it feels like it's the name someone would use to address the person in question, I capitalize it. Another character called her 'Red' because of her hair. He was an old biker, from Texas, it was just how he spoke. Which brings me to the apostrophe.
    Also, I have no clue which comes first: the 'comma,' or the closing 'apostrophe'.

    Use it. In proper English/American, it's written as 'darling', as you know. Unless you're writing your story in a certain dialect, I suppose you'd need to err... show you know how to spell, and the apostrophe makes it clear there's supposed to be a letter there.
    I never studied language or writing or anything, so I just decided that's what it had to be. Because of contractions. In "it's" the apostrophe stands for "space+i", hence, a theory was born.
    However! You'll notice I used the double quotation marks instead of the single ones for that last example. All the apostrophes and dialect spellings can make it hard to read, as I dun noticed whene'er the Texan feller spoke. Personally, I figured dialing it back to balance between "yup, he's a cowboy" and "yes, I can read this" was the better choice. As long as you don't write like a toddler on Twitter, getting the message across is more important than the proper use of an apostrophe, isn't it?
     
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  9. trevorD

    trevorD Senior Member

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    I think i'm going to go with uncapitalized. Here's my thinking on the matter:

    When the guy says, "Don't worry your pretty face, darlin", he's really saying two things. 1) that she shouldn't worry her pretty face and 2) that she's a darling girl. If he says she's a darling girl, the word darling in that situation would be an adjective, not a proper noun. It gets confusing because if I were to say "don't forget to take your medicine, Marlene", the comma right after the word medicine begs for a proper noun, but in this situation he's substituting in an adjective in it's place. Now, if darlin were the nickname she went by, I'd capitalize it, but here I think its a generic term he might toss at five different people, which leads me to think it's an adjective rather than a proper noun.

    Also, I'm going to use the apostrophe. If I said, "don't worry your pretty face, darlin" without it, then even though the guy said it that way, darlin would be a typo based on misspelling. By adding the apostrophe as an author, you're indicating that you knew it's misspelled, but that's the way the guy said it.

    So, I'm going with:

    “Don’t you worry your pretty face, darlin',” he replied. “I just scored us a deal that’ll carry us all for months.”

    UUUGH!!! Thanks for the help you guys!
     
  10. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

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    Capitalise it if it is a nickname.

    For example, if the character's name is Robert, but everyone calls him Jimmy because he looks like James Cagney, capitalise it. Or if they call him Big Bob, also capitalise it.

    But "darlin'" is not a nickname. It is a term of endearment. If he calls her "snookums", don't capitalise it if he's using it in that context, capitalise it if *everyone* calls her Snookums.
     
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  11. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    This is what I was going to say. @Naomasa298 is right. If the pet name has come to be more of a name than you would capitalize it. If your character is just trying to be sweet, then it would be lowercase.
     
  12. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Unless it's her actual nickname, like the young woman in Baby Driver. The main character's nickname is Baby, and there's a guy named Bats. It's sort of like Reservoir Dogs, a heist movie where the characters all have nicknames to hide their identities even from each other in case somebody gets caught and given the third degree. So in her case it would be Darlin'. Or, come to think of it, also in the movies The Woman and Darlin' where it's the little girl's nickname.

    The determining factor is whether it's an actual nickname (informal name) or just a figure of speech.
     
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  13. FFBurwick

    FFBurwick Member

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    Darlin, for darling, does not seem to need capitalization, as it is used generically. If a pet name is used frequently for one individual in place of a given name, it seems that it should be capitalized. I am not sure that would always hold, and now I am taking it as a challenge to write with someone getting a pet name that won't get capitalized, when I find a way to justify that.
     

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