Re: Possessive of a name that ends in X

Subject: Re: Possessive of a name that ends in X
From: "Glanbrok, Slayer of Bluntskulls" <conehead -at- OVERTHE -dot- NET>
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 15:32:24 -0400

Sigrid Schoepel asks:


How would you punctuate a name that ends in X to make it possessive?

Ajax'
Ajax's


Man the battlements! Defend our principles! Strunk & White, we need you now!

In my dim view of grammar, the only time it's right to drop the final "s" in a possessive is when the noun itself is plural:

rhinoceroses' horns not rhinoceroses's horns
hunchbacks' calluses not hunchbacks's calluses

There's also the anomalous false plural

Mrs. Andrews' apple pie

which contrasts with

Mrs. Childress's dead horse


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