Ask the Grammar Geek 2

Today’s question comes from Kis, who says:

when using the possessive of names that end in S, is it Alexis’ dog, or Alexis’s?. Because I’ve seen both.

Well, the fact of the matter is, it depends. I went to three style guides for this question, because while personally, I prefer the clean lines of just the apostrophe without the extra ’s’, there is much controversy over this issue.

The Canadian Press stylebook, which is based on the American Press stylebook says:

plural nouns ending in s take an apostrophe alone … singular nouns and names ending in s (or an s sound) normally take an ’s … but names ending with an -iz sound and classical names often take only an apostrophe … [whereas] names ending in a silent s or x take and apostrophe and s

Heh, confused yet? Let’s look at Essentials of English:

The possessive case of nouns is formed by adding an apostrophe and an s to words which do not end with an s or a z sound: the boy’s room, the children’s school; and by adding only the apostrophe to words which do end with an s or a z sound: the boys’ room, Dickens’ novel. If however, the word ending in s or z is a proper name with only one syllable, an apostrophe and an s are added to the word: Keats’s sonnets, Santa Claus’s reindeer.

And that in some ways contradicts the first one, doesn’t it? Ok, let’s go to Chicago Manual of Style, which is one of the more popular style guides. What’s really interesting, is CMOS uses the Dickens example, only the exact opposite… as it basically says with the exception of a few classical examples (Jesus’, Moses’, Euripides’), always add an apostrophe and an s.

That being said, section 6.30 says this:

How to form the possessive of polysyllabic personal names ending with the sound of s or z probably occassions more dissension among writers and editors than any other orthographic mattter open to disagreement.

So bottom line, two of the guides say it would be Alexis’s and one says Alexis’. So which should you use? As I said, it depends. Most importantly, I think, is to stay consistent. Pick one and stick with it throughout your work. You’ll also find that most publishers – book, magazine, website, etc. have one preferred style guide and will conform completely to that style, so where you may have picked Alexis’, your editor may choose to go with a different style guide, and change them all to Alexis’s.

Hope that helps!