HOW DO YOU WRITE MY NAME?

One of my students sent me Season’s Greetings for which I thanked him all right, but I wasn’t very happy because he wrote Khalikhur Rehman for my name. Later, when he met me, I asked him why he spelt my name like that, he said he thought personal names had no fixed spellings! ‘That’s okay’, I said, ‘but individual preferences on this point have to be respected.’ He got my point and said, ‘Sorry’ and promised to be careful.

It is a common belief with most of us that we can write any spelling as far as proper nouns, particularly, personal names are concerned. What does that mean? It means that I can choose to write one of the possible spellings of my name, and so can you in the case of your name, but I must write your name the way you write it and so must you when you write mine. This is mutual respect, isn’t it?

In fact, this mutual respect is not restricted to spellings only; it is extended to pronunciation and the use of capital letters, too.

As far as possible, one should try to pronounce a name as accurately as possible according to how that person whose name it is pronounces it. William Cowper, the poet used to pronounce his surname as Cooper, and everybody fell in line and the English Pronouncing Dictionary records it, too.

It is a pity, then, isn’t it, that quite a few of the British, South African and Australian Commentators pronounce Indian names the way they like it, and sometimes make fun of them, too.

The poet e e cummings never used capital letters. We must, therefore, respect his preference and never write E E Cummings.

The British surnames beginning with ff are often written in small letters. However, the London Telephone Dictionary writes both Ffoulkes and ffoulkes or Ffyche and ffyche. It is interesting to note here that ff in such surnames originated not as a double f, but as an old fashioned form of the capital F!

Surnames beginning with prefixes pose special problems. Surnames beginning with O should always be written with capital O and capital first letter after the apostrophe like, O’Brien, O’Sullivan.

In surnames beginning with d’, da, de, del, della, di, du, l’, la, le, van and von, individual preferences vary a great deal and one comes across both Van Den Berg and van den Berg. van den Berg and van den berg are also possible. Variation is possible in Mc or Mac surnames and one is likely to come across both MacDonald and McDonald; also Macdonald and even Mcdonald.

But if it is someone else’s name, we have no choice but to write the way he or she writes it.

How do we write the titles that go with personal names? We give a capital letter to all titles that precede personal names. Titles of a personal nature are written Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss, Lady and Sir and, titles indicating rank and order as I, II and so on ( in Roman figures ). An organization or status in a profession is written President, Chairman, Mayor, Dr and Professor. Mark Mr, Mrs, Ms and Dr have no full stops. In British English, they write, for example just Mr and not Mr.

One writes Mrs Roberts, the director of the welfare committee but Dr Manmohan Singh the Prime Minister.

 What will you write when you wish to address both husband and wife for example in the case of Chopras: Mr & Mrs Chopra or Mrs & Mr Chopra?

And how will you write the address and send an invitation to Dr Manmohan Singh and his wife?