How to Write a Good Story

When Should We CaPiTaLizE?

People's first, last, and  however many in-between names are nearly always capitalised. Even though  there are probably other people with the same name, when the name is used it refers to one person in particular and thus is a proper noun. One of the most obvious examples of proper nouns, you should nearly always  capitalise names. There are a few exceptions, sometimes be seen with  people who have a non-English derived surname, such as Dafydd ab Hugh,  L. Sprague de Camp, Tim LaHaye, or D. J. MacHale. As a matter of  courtesy, one should spell a personal name as the person so named  desires.

Brand names and trademarks. Brands (legally called )  refer to one specific brand of products, distinguishable from their  competition and are usually proper nouns. They are defined as a "name,  term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's  good or service as distinct from those of other sellers". 

Specific places and countries. Geographical locations like countries, established regions, seas, roads, ,  towns, etc. are all proper nouns as they refer to that place in  particular. This also includes geographical features like the Equator,  rivers, mountains and public places, structures and buildings. Note that  the compass points or directions north, ,  east and west do not need to be capitalised as they are not proper  nouns, unless they are used as part of the name of an established  region, for example, East Anglia or Southern California. Some examples:"Go north, then you'll find yourself in North Carolina.""I've come all the way from the South to see you!""Our house is in the southwest region of Adelaide." In this case, the direction acts as an adjective, not a noun.

items.  Days of the week, months and public holidays all need to be  capitalised. Days of the week and months are fairly simple to remember,  although you must remember that some of the month names have other  meanings that should not be capitalised, for example, I may go to the opera or Time to march!

Public holidays like ,  Christmas Eve or St Patrick's Day must be capitalised, no matter which  words they are made up of. Similarly, famous historical events and time  periods are also capitalised, for example, the  or the Revolutionary War Seasons do not get capitalised. Capitalising the seasons is a very old-fashioned habit that still lingers but spring,  (fall), summer and winter are not capitalised unless they are at the beginning of a sentence or form part of a renowned name. Avoid capitalising descriptors of eras, such as the eighties, the sixties, etc.     

3. Capitalise adjectives derived from proper nouns, or "proper adjectives".

These are usually adjectives made up from proper nouns, and must be  capitalised just like their ancestors. Note that any other parts of  speech derived from proper nouns should also be capitalised, for  example, a "proper verb" like Americanise or a "proper " like Britishly.

  Nationalities and languages. These are the biggest example of  proper adjectives, and must always be capitalised, as they are proper  adjectives derived from the name of that particular region. For example,  from the proper noun  comes the proper adjectives German (referring to the language that is spoken there) and German  (referring to a person, object, custom, etc. that originates from  Germany). However, this is not limited to nationalities which derive  from a specific proper noun – it includes any race, tribe, etc.  including names like "Cherokee" and "Asian".

Note that this is complicated by varying approaches to national  references when used in a non-literal sense, such as French fry/french  fry, French doors/french doors or French poodle/french poodle. The  capitalization or otherwise of these "non-literal" words is dependent on  the style guide you're referring to and often on how much you'd really  like to associate the French with French... or is it french... fries.