Thanks! (was Re: Possessive form of name ending with apostrophe?)

[Jay L Gordon <jaylgordon -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Thanks, folks, for your ideas. Iâm going to suggest to Joe, the student, the following approach:

1. Even though we may *think* the use of the apostrophe at the end of these names is a mistake somebody made at some point, we have no practical way of pursuing that question. If the name is spelled by the ânameeâ (or his/her parents) with an apostrophe at the end, we just have to go with that.

2. For the possessive form of the name, if we canât rewrite the sentence to avoid it, then yes, we use two apostrophes (Achanteââs books and pencils). Like Rebecca Officer said, it may *look* wrong, but that doesnât really matter. Adding apostrophe-s is the way to go, if weâre being consistent with how we make other names possessive.

Thanks! I know these was sort of an odd little question, but I we were really stumped.

--Â
Jay L Gordon
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On March 6, 2015 at 8:07:19 PM, Peter Neilson (neilson -at- windstream -dot- net) wrote:

On Fri, 06 Mar 2015 18:37:14 -0500, Robert Lauriston  
<robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> wrote:

> Clearly the possessive of Achanteâ should be Achanteâs.

Did the parents think they were spelling Enchantà or perhaps EnchantÃe?

The apostrophe is probably used instead of the accent because school  
systems and birth registries do not have (or formerly did not have)  
equipment to handle diacritical marks.

When I run across names that are clearly supposed to be something intended  
to appear French, I am -so- tempted to "correct" them into real French.

I think the temptation comes not only from my tech-writing hat, but from  
my early training in proofreading for the family newspaper. For anyone who  
wonders, "Press time is two AM!" is a much more important consideration  
than, "I have to fix another typo."

As for made-up names, most of know someone with a name that was modified  
at immigration, as was Dan* Goldstein**'s

*made up several thousand years ago
**made up centuries ago, I guess; my great-grandfather adopted this name  
when he got to New York, to replace "BrzÃza"

The name BrzÃza is a place in Poland. Nobody knows how to pronounce it.  
Well, at least I don't. Mssng wvvls.
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