Rules for Writing the Names of Races

[Ankari]

I have several races in my WIP. Do you capitalize each race or do you not capitalize the word?

From the research I've done, you wouldn't capitalize human but you would capitalize Sumerian or Arab. So, in the presence of multiple race would you write Elf or elf?

 

[Sheilawisz]

I have developed several species of creatures for my Joan of England world, and the names of all of them are always capitalized!! I feel that it helps to give them more importance in the story and make them more unique as species =)

 

[The Din]

I try not to use capitals unless I need to, so no, I personally wouldn't. I find too many capitals make a work appear amateurish, same goes fore underlines and italics(outside of internal dialogue)

 

[Ireth]

I capitalize the names of the different types of Fae in my novels, simply because I've almost never seen it done otherwise, and it looks right to my eyes.

 

[Saigonnus]

I wouldn't worry much about capitalizing races... you only capitalize human if it is part of a proper name "The Human Conclave" or whatever.

 

[Mindfire]

There are essentially two different schools of thought, or "rules", on this.

The Common Rule: capitalize proper names of nations and cultures, but don't capitalize the names of races.

Tolkien's Rule: capitalize both proper names of nations/cultures AND the names of races, especially if you have races that are monocultural.

I personally use the Common Rule.

And something else that is tangentially related to this topic. If you have a race that is pretty much identical to a well known fantasy race with perhaps, perhaps a few minor adjustments, don't make up an entirely new name for them. It just gets annoying. I'm currently reading an e-book where dwarves are called "mariones", elves are called "emerlindians", hobbits are "tumanhofers", and humans are called "o'rants."

PLEASE. DON'T DO THIS.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

elves are called "emerlindians"

I glanced at these words before reading your post, and--at the glance--I thought you were making up an interntionally absurd example of what not to do.

Now that I've read you're actually reading a book that does this... wow! Why waste time explaining what an emerlindian is--and having the reader stumble over its pronunciation--when you can just say "elf" and everybody knows all thy need to?

 

[Mindfire]

I glanced at these words before reading your post, and--at the glance--I thought you were making up an interntionally absurd example of what not to do.

Now that I've read you're actually reading a book that does this... wow! Why waste time explaining what an emerlindian is--and having the reader stumble over its pronunciation--when you can just say "elf" and everybody knows all thy need to?

I have no idea. And to complicate matters, there are fairies/sprites called "kimen", ogres called "grawligs", and gnomes called "doneels", giants called "urohms", and Cthulhu-style abominations called "quiss". The writer additionally has several original races that the reader must keep track of. There are FOURTEEN TOTAL RACES. Plus dragons. Yeah, the author has dragons too.

The e-book series seems fairly obscure, but it's managed to get a wiki:
http://dragonkeeperchronicles.wikia.com/wiki/High_Races
http://dragonkeeperchronicles.wikia.com/wiki/Low_Races

The story seems kind of interesting, which is why I'm sticking around, but I gotta say this is some of the sloppiest world building I have ever seen, moreso even than some of my work from 7th grade, which included half-elf superhero children with elemental powers working for a secret organization under the command of God incarnate, trying to stop a shade who wants to perform a blood sacrifice to the dragon demons of the abyss and their unspeakable dark lord master in order to transform into an immortal vampire. All that in a story that was planned to span several books and somehow managed to include giants, elves, dwarves, wolfmen, werefoxes, demigod phoenixes, dragons, gryphons, shades both good and evil, God, magma monsters, velociraptors, ersatz Kryptonians, and The Devil.

Somehow I managed to give all those plot elements at least a semblance of cohesion (and then I realized how ridiculous the story was getting and scrapped the whole affair), but while reading this book, I practically have to either keep the wiki tab open or scroll up ten pages to the original description just so I can remember what a "tumanhofer" is. And not only did the author not prune down all the races to just a few we'd remember, but she published it. And sucker that I am, I'm going to read it, because somewhere buried under all of that is a story that seems potentially interesting.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

"Kimen" I can forgive as my tongue isn't tripping over the word. (Not that I'm reading aloud, but still, some of those race names--and, God!, those tumanhofer character names!--make me want to revise my top ten list on the fantasy cliche thread!) I think that's why "hobbit" worked. I never heard of a hobbit before reading The Hobbit. I never asked, "Why not call them dwarves?" Linguistically, the name works as a race. And they're different enough, even if dwarves weren't already in Tolkien's world.

I could think of a hobbit as a type of dwarf and a kimen as a type of sprite and still accept those race names. Words like "hobbit" and "kimen" sound like they're part of our language. (Or maybe kimen are Japanese fairies. I won't use an "s" to pluralize the word.) When I see all those other races, I think that words like elf, orc, human, etc. are preferable.

My point being, the real mistake isn't JUST having too many original races that really aren't that original. The names are awkward. As you said, you're not putting the book down DESPITE having to look at the Wiki to keep track of what's what... and in your mind, they're ogres, humans, sprites, elves, giants, etc. I think making up a strange, unpronounceable word just forces the reader to substitute the word.

 

[Steerpike]

My advice, if you are referring to members of a race generally, do not capitalize it. If you are referring to the race itself such that you are using it more like a proper noun, capitalize it.

For example:

The humans watched as the elves slipped quietly through the trees.

v.

The time of Elves drew to a close and the days of Men began.

For the vast majority of uses, no caps would be necessary.

 

[Ophiucha]

Depends on the context you use it in, I suppose.

If you are referring to one of your party members as 'the elf' three times a chapter, it will peeve the hell out of me if you capitalize it every time. It just doesn't read naturally. But, in my experience, many fantasy authors use the name of a race and the place they inhabit as one and the same. Elves live in "The Land of the Elves" or "Alfland" or something. Given that, one could use capital-E Elf in the same way we use 'American' or 'English' in our world.

One could also consider it scientifically, if you were so inclined. We could extrapolate that American and English are capitalized because they are nationalities of a single race, whereas 'human' and 'dog' are lower case, as they are different species. In most stories, dwarves, humans, and elves are capable of breeding, which would indicate they were the same species, and hence would warrant the capitalization. And then, on the other hand, we don't capitalize 'black', 'white', or 'brown' in the context of race, though we often use those terms to refer to people of the different races of man.

So... it's up to you? Personally, I just find randomly capitalized words to look ugly.