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On the capitalization of familial honorifics

English Language & Usage Asked on July 28, 2021

We all know that Mom and Dad are capitalized when used in dialogue as a substitute for a name.

But is it the same for big sister, big brother, big sis, and big bro?

One example of the sentence would be this:

Big Sis? No. She gets another point.

Also, what if it include name like this:

Big Sis Tia? No. She gets another point.

I see a lot of novels using sister without any capitalization, but why? Because it’s a common noun?

One Answer

Most English-speaking kids never address their parents or grandparents by their name, but only use Grandad/Gramps/Grandfather or something similar. So these monikers for parents and grandparents are capitalized because they're essentially being used as names.

Similarly, many kids would never think of addressing their aunt as Betty, but always say Aunt Betty. So we consider the "aunt" as part of her name and capitalize it.

For sisters and brothers, most English-speaking kids use names and only occasionally call them "sister" or "brother". If they always called a sibling by the name "Sister" or "Sister Susan", you would be justified in capitalizing it. But if they only use it occasionally, we treat it as a common noun. Similarly, most of the time, aunts, uncles, and grandparents call their grandchildren by their given names, so we don't capitalize "niece" or "grandson".

Answered by Peter Shor on July 28, 2021

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