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I feel so stupid asking this, but I'm having trouble finding an answer on the web. They have tons of examples for common nouns, but none for proper nouns that I can find. I'm having a problem with my book and need some help. If I have a family name that ends in "y", let's say Kennedy since everybody knows that one, and I want to use the plural of the name, how do I right that? Is it:

the Kennedys
the Kennedy's
the Kennedies

I realize since it's a proper noun, I doubt you do the "ie" thing. However, the apostrophe looks wrong to me in this case. The "-ys" also looks wrong. So, anyway, in the sentence: "The ________ always vacationed in the Hamptons." what is the proper way to spell the family name?

Thanks.

bjornolf wrote:I'm having a problem with my book and need some help. If I have a family name that ends in "y", let's say Kennedy since everybody knows that one, and I want to use the plural of the name, how do I right that? Is it:

the Kennedys
the Kennedy's
the Kennedies

I realize since it's a proper noun, I doubt you do the "ie" thing. However, the apostrophe looks wrong to me in this case. The "-ys" also looks wrong. So, anyway, in the sentence: "The ________ always vacationed in the Hamptons." what is the proper way to spell the family name?

Thanks.

I'd have to think Kennedys. Like the Smiths. I agree, you wouldn't convert -y to -ie. You could use an apostrophe if you were to say Kennedy's house or the Kennedys' house.

That's what I thought, but it just felt wrong to me. I found a few places on the net like some of the "Ask" sites, but this was random people answering the question. I trust you guys far more than some rando I don't know. Thanks for the answer. Let's see if Wilson agrees. ;)

It's Kennedys. You never adjust the spelling of a proper noun. I agree that it doesn't look quite right, but it is.
It's sort of similar to the plural of "donkey". Many people render it "donkies," when in fact the proper spelling is donkeys.

You could always go with "The Kennedy family always vacationed in the Hamptons." ;)

wilson wrote:It's Kennedys. You never adjust the spelling of a proper noun. I agree that it doesn't look quite right, but it is.
It's sort of similar to the plural of "donkey". Many people render it "donkies," when in fact the proper spelling is donkeys.

I try to keep it even simpler and write "arses." :roll:

DukieInKansas wrote:You could always go with "The Kennedy family always vacationed in the Hamptons." ;)

Yea, the problem is it's a novel, so I end up mentioning them several times. The name is NOT the Kennedys in my book, I was just using that as an example. I used "the ____ family" a couple times, but that gets repetitive and awkward, so I wanted more options. ;)

Thanks for your help everybody. I thought that was correct, but it just looked odd to me.