Popular place names

Capitalize the popular names of regions

· Left Bank
· Chicago’s South Side
· Silicon Valley
· Narnia

The popular names of regions can generally be considered singular, as you can see in the examples listed above.

Where popular names describe two or more distinct places the popular name will be plural. For example, the Chanel Islands refers to an archipelago of five English speaking islands off the coast of France (Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, Herm and Alderney) and therefore is plural.









When two or more regions are linked in a single expression, the usual practice is to put the generic part of the names in lower case e.g., the Eastern and Western fronts of WW2.

Take care not to capitalize the cardinal directions (north, east, south and west) if they simply indicate direction or location. Where cardinal directions form part of a geographical description they should be capitalized. For example, the Far East and Middle Eastern both refer to ill defined regions and not a specific location.