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Is the plural of "BlackBerry", BlackBerries or BlackBerrys?

I am asking, because I'm altering the underlying brand name to look more like the food and less like the product, leaving the reader to infer it from context.

Peter Mortensen
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makerofthings7
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4 Answers4

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I appreciate @senderle's choice to consider the New York Times as a source for common usage.

However, I found the "proper" answer in a BlackBerry Branding Guidelines PDF from 2007 (page 5):

Avoid using the RIM Marks generically, as nouns or verbs and do not use them in the plural or possessive form.

and

  1. Do not use the RIM Marks in plural or possessive form.
    ✓ BlackBerry® smartphones
    ✗ BlackBerrys, BlackBerries, BlackBerry’s

This is in agreement with what some other answers have suggested.

Community
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Corey
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    Any trademark holder will tell you that. That doesn't mean that's how people use it in the real world. – msh210 May 26 '11 at 17:30
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    That advice specifically concerns the use of "BlackBerry" as a trademark. Legally speaking, you cannot trademark a noun or a verb; only adjectival usage is trademarked. Here's an overview of trademark law. My sense is that unless you work for Research in Motion, you probably don't care whether you're using BlackBerry in a trademarkable way. – senderle May 26 '11 at 17:38
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    +1 this should be the correct answer and it's as official as it gets. – Davy8 May 26 '11 at 18:30
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    @serderle I don't think my answer suggested that I don't know what a trademark is. It uses the term "RIM Marks" and refers to a page that is entirely about trademarks. I was actually assuming some knowledge about trademarks when I offered this as an alternative authority. There's the common usage, which you covered, and then there's the "official" format from the horse's mouth. The question doesn't specify, so I delivered the latter for balance. – Corey May 26 '11 at 19:31
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    I didn't mean to criticize you personally -- it just galls me to think that corporate lawyers are somehow dictating the rules of English usage. – senderle May 27 '11 at 14:30
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    @senderle - and importantly if people start using Blackberry generically it becomes like 'fax' 'xerox' and 'kleenex' and loses it's trademark status. Although, right now, RIM would be overjoyed to be popular enough to become generic! – mgb Jul 25 '11 at 16:07
  • I wish there was a similar guide for Twitter. Namely past and future tense.. – makerofthings7 Aug 26 '14 at 18:01
11

I would write Blackberries rather than Blackberrys. The latter looks like a terrible spelling mistake. For most situations, altering the brand name in this way won't matter.

However, if you're preparing a formal document and need to use the exact trademarked name, then you'll have to use a circumlocution such as Blackberry devices or Blackberry phones.

JSBձոգչ
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    Isn't this case the same for acronyms? I mean saying "Blackberry's" would be fine, no? – Alenanno May 26 '11 at 15:02
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    By the way, I'd still go for your "Blackberry devices/phones" rather than saying Blackberrys (this one NEVER) or Blackberries. :D – Alenanno May 26 '11 at 15:19
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    @Alenanno, I would say no. Blackberry's looks just as wrong as the others to me. I'd only use the apostrophe here if the brand name itself is also an acronym. – JSBձոգչ May 26 '11 at 15:24
  • Well I like your answer more for that second part, so I upvoted it. :) – Alenanno May 26 '11 at 15:27
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    @Alenanno, why would you pluralize with an apostrophe? Even an acronym? Nah. – msh210 May 26 '11 at 17:29
  • @msh210: Regarding "Blackberry" I was not sure, but with acronyms it's the proper way to pluralize. This is true with dotted acronyms. If you find an established acronym that became a word, like CDs, then you can avoid the apostrophe. – Alenanno May 26 '11 at 17:31
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    @Alenanno: You'd write CAPTCHA's as the plural of CAPTCHA? It looks so wrong — or like the possessive. CAPTCHAs looks much better. – msh210 May 26 '11 at 17:33
  • @msh210: I'm not sure, but that version is also used. I don't think there is a strict rule for this. – Alenanno May 26 '11 at 17:42
  • @Alenanno: That'd be called, ironically enough, the greengrocer's apostrophe. – Golden Cuy May 27 '11 at 07:57
  • @Andrew Grimm: Why ironically? – Alenanno May 27 '11 at 09:20
  • @Alenanno: Cause you can buy the vegetable form of blackberries from a greengrocer. – Golden Cuy May 27 '11 at 10:37
  • @Andrew Grimm: lol I didn't think of that... – Alenanno May 27 '11 at 10:39
  • @Alenanno, why do you think it is correct to use an apostrophe to pluralise an acronym? This is common but I think there is no grammatical justification for it. My email package (Lotus Notes, don't get me started...) FORCES me to use it (if I type "CDs" it auto-'corrects' this to "Cds" - but "CD's" it leaves alone). But I know that I'm right and it is wrong... – AAT May 28 '11 at 22:31
  • @AAT: I'm not sure whether there is some justification to do it, I haven't investigated, but there isn't any explicit prohibition or rule against it. – Alenanno May 29 '11 at 00:00
  • @Alenanno - I think we should keep apostrophes for their traditional roles of indicating possession and omission. There are a good many questions about apostrophes and plurals on here already: for example http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/25277/what-is-the-proper-way-to-write-the-plural-of-a-single-letter-another-apostroph. The concensus seems to be that plurals should not be formed with an apostrophe, with the (possible) exception of pluralising single letters (because "ps and qs" looks weird: although I would fix that particular example by going for "Ps and Qs"). – AAT May 29 '11 at 13:06
  • Here it says that with dotted acronyms, the 's pluralization is acceptable. And here it says that you would write M.A.'s and Ph.D.'s but MAs and PhD's. – Alenanno May 29 '11 at 13:29
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I often turn to the New York Times for answers to questions like these. Search for "BlackBerrys" and "BlackBerries" here and see what you find.

Well, ok, I'll just tell you: they exclusively use "BlackBerrys." And if it's good enough for the New York Times, it's good enough for me.

senderle
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The technically correct plural of Blackberry would be Blackberrys because it's a proper name. Using an apostrophe, i.e. Blackberry's, is improper because it is neither a possession nor an acronym. You could get away with treating it like the fruit, i.e. blackberries, and nobody except a stickler for proper grammar would complain.

I didn't vote for @senderle's post because the New York Times isn't good for anything except lining a birdcage. ;-)

Suncat2000
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  • -1 The reason people post questions here is that they are trying to understand the proper grammar. Simply "getting away with" a grammatically vague or incorrect usage is the antithesis of this site. Additionally, there's no room for mudslinging in answers, in my opinion. Leave that out, or in the comments. – xdumaine May 26 '11 at 17:19
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    Ouch. But is your beef with their journalism or their copy-editing? – senderle May 26 '11 at 18:19
  • @roviuser The main point here is to know how to write Blackberry in plural. It does not matter if it is not grammatical. – Phonics The Hedgehog Aug 18 '11 at 23:00
  • This answer works for me. "Look at all those people talking on their Blackberrys" – ukayer Oct 20 '11 at 04:30