Geographic Names & Proper Names

- Always capitalize the names of geographic divisions like mountains, rivers, islands, oceans, states, countries, towns, cities, continents, and streets.

Geographic Names

For example:

United States of America, Mount Everest, Tokyo, New York, Great Britain

- Capitalize common nouns only when they are a part of proper names, not when they stand alone.

For example:

• River Ravi flows through India and Pakistan.
• The ocean was quite dirty.
• Though Niagara Falls is the most famous tourist attraction, the falls in Cherrapunji are extremely beautiful.

- The words, which are derived from geographic names but used to convey a special meaning, are not capitalized.

For example:

plaster of paris, french fries

- If the name of a city precedes the name of the state or if name of a state precedes the name of a country in text, then separate the state and country from city and state respectively by commas.

For example:
The doctor lives in Babylon, New York.
His office is in San Jose, California.

- Proper adjectives and sociocultural derivatives from geographic names are capitalized.

For example:

This Spanish-speaking lady comes from New York, This is an 81-year-old African-American lady

Proper Names
- Names of a person, place, apartment, street, organization should always be capitalized.

For example:
George Bush II
Lady Harding Hospital.

- Common names, places, and things are not to be capitalized.

For example:
Novartis is a big pharmaceutical company
She owns her own cosmetic clinic
Columbia is a very famous university in Canada.