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Should it be, for example, "Fish 'n' Chips", or "Fish 'N' Chips"?

Sven Yargs
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Ryan
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    See http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/14/which-words-in-a-title-should-be-capitalized if in any doubt about 'and'. I think the contraction of 'and' should be treated the same as 'and'. – Avon Jul 01 '15 at 12:59
  • I think this question is topical (as in, there's probably some established best practice or orthographic rule, here), but in order to remain open and get answers, @Ryan, you're going to include some evidence that you tried to answer this question yourself first. What did your prior research tell you? – Dan Bron Jul 01 '15 at 13:31
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    @Avon It's worth noting that that's not always the case. The band Guns N' Roses, for example, capitalizes the "n." – Nicole Jul 01 '15 at 13:38
  • Names and trademarks are different from common phrases. You can call yourself (or spell, or orthograph yourself) any way you like. – bib Jul 01 '15 at 13:42
  • @Nicole It is a good example but I have always felt the capital N seemed wrong in their name and, apart from that, what bib said. – Avon Jul 01 '15 at 13:49
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    It seems like most uses of "n" for "and" are in names and trademarks, though: Pick 'n Save, Cash 'n Carry, etc. Since some of them may choose to capitalize the "n" and some may choose not to, there's probably no one black-and-white answer to this question. – Nicole Jul 01 '15 at 13:52
  • Agree, @Nicole. However, I think that 'n' is such a tiny word that capitalizing it makes it too much 'in your face'. – David Garner Jul 01 '15 at 14:30
  • A capital n in phrases like these is just marketing. It has zero to do with anything else at all. – Lambie Dec 15 '21 at 14:28

1 Answers1

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If you are talking about taking a regular, lowercase phrase, like fish 'n' chips or rock 'n' roll, and putting it in a book title—say, Bottomfeeder's Guide to Fish 'n' Chips or My Ten-Year War with Rock 'n' Roll—it seems to me that 'n' is preferable to 'N'. That's because 'n' is a diminished form of and, which would normally be lowercased in a title if it were included in its entirety. It doesn't make much sense to me that removing two of the three letters in a conjunction would provide a compelling justification for capitalizing the remaining letter.

On the other hand, if you are asking about how to handle 'n' when it appears in a proper name, all bets are off. A quick look at fish 'n' chips outlets in the San Francisco Bay Area reveals the following treatments: Blue Bay Fish & Chips, Camelot Fish & Chips, The Codmother Fish & Chips, Fish 'n Frites, HS Fish & Chips, H.Salt, esq. Fish & Chips, Jay's Fish & Chips, Jonathan's Fish & Chips, London Fish N' Chips, Louisiana Fish & Chips, Piccadilly Fish & Chips, [Sausalito] Fish & Chips, Scousers Fish 'n Chips, Tugboat Fish & Chips, and Union Fish & Chips.

For those of you not keeping score at home, that adds up to twelve ampersands, two instances of 'n, and one instance of N'. Neither 'n' nor 'N' scores any matches at all. So if you're giving your fish 'n' chips shop a name, you can use & or you can use n or N, presumably with as many or as few apostrophes as you like.

Sven Yargs
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