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September 2013 Moms
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Possessive form of "Silas"

A37liciaA37licia member
in September 2013 Moms
Thought this might be useful for anyone else who has a name for their baby that ends in S.   We have a professional editor friend, so DH asked what's the norm these days with the possessive form of a name ending in S. I hadn't known if trends had changed since I went through school.   She said:

"That's a good question. Style manuals disagree, so I think you're on safe grounds to choose which you prefer. However, there's more support for Silas's.
 
The Associated Press Stylebook 2011 (journalism) would say Silas'. The Chicago Manual of Style (more formal prose and books) would say Silas's. The Gregg Reference Manual (business) gives this guideline: "To form the possessive of a singular noun that ends in an s sound, be guided by the way you pronounce the word. If a new syllable is formed in the pronunciation of the possessive, add an apostrophe plus s. (Mr. and Mrs. Morris's plane tickets . . .  Dallas's business district)."
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Re: Possessive form of "Silas"

  • strlitemissstrlitemiss member
    I've actually been curious about this since joining the bump I've realized my grammar sucks.
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  • Curls218Curls218 member
    I actually had this argument with someone at work the other day.  They were talking about an author whose name ends with an S and they wrote out his work as [author's name]s' [title of work] and I questioned them on it.  I'm glad to see that it technically could go either way though there's more support for my view LOL
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  • JLMcWeeneyJLMcWeeney member
    If it is possessive ending in s it is spelled Silas'. It is true a lot of people use Silas's, but that may be because they don't realize the extra s is not nesessary.
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  • A37liciaA37licia member
    twolittlewheels said:

    I would have assumed "Silas's" since it isn't a plural possessive.  I guess I never thought much about it.

    Yeah good point

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  • mmdd20mmdd20 member
    I just went through this with my son Brooks's birthday invitations. For his first birthday, I used s' and it never looked right to me since I knew the s' denotes plural possesive. We always go 's now, having spent way to much time thinking about this and looking it up.


     

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  • CDMay2006CDMay2006 member
    JLMcWeeney said:
    If it is possessive ending in s it is spelled Silas'. It is true a lot of people use Silas's, but that may be because they don't realize the extra s is not nesessary.
    Traditionally, for a proper noun ending in s, you use 's as you would for any other proper name (after the s in the name).  It wasn't considered unnecessary until recently (and is still contentious!). 
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  • starinytestarinyte member
    edited August 2013
    JLMcWeeney said:
    If it is possessive ending in s it is spelled Silas'. It is true a lot of people use Silas's, but that may be because they don't realize the extra s is not nesessary.
    This was my understanding, too. I was taught that possessives on words ending in s are indicated with an apostrophe, but no extra s.  It is possible I've been doing it wrong all of these years, though.

    ETA: I was a journalism major in college, so it makes sense that I would cling to the AP style on this issue. :)
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  • BellodomaniBellodomani member
    This post made my nerd self very happy- we've been going over it since our son will be named Miles. I think that Miles' sounds/ looks better to me (possible because my brain was warped by too many years of strict MLA writing) but it's nice to know there is support for either usage so that I don't try to get up on my high horse with someone who tries to tell me to do it the other way ;)
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