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From: Bernard Peek <bap@shrdlu.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom
Subject: Re: AKICIF: British Capitalization of Acronyms for Organizations
Date: 18 Jun 2025 18:59:58 GMT
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On 2025-06-18, Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:
> On 6/17/25 8:47 AM, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
>> (Or "British Capitalisation of Acronyms for Organisations", if you prefer)
>> 
>> The Guardian and the BBC seem to write the abbreviation for "Immigration 
>> and Customs Enforcement" as "Ice", rather than the "ICE" used in the US. 
>>   But they abbreviate "United States" as "US", not "Us".
>> 
>> What's the rule here?  Is "North American Treaty Organization" written 
>> as "Nato"?
>> 
>
> I don't know if it's a rule, but I've seen other instances. British 
> publications tend to refer to the World Health Organization as "The 
> Who," which makes me think it's a music group.

There are no universally accepted standards. 

I was taught that if the abbreviation is usually pronounced as a word then
only the first letter is capitalised as it is a proper-noun, but NATO is
pronounced but is usually in all caps. WHO would be pronouncable but is
invariably spoken as three separate words.

We have a getout clause though. English spelling, grammar and punctuation
rules are descriptive and not prescriptive despite what we are taught at
school.


-- 
Bernard Peek
bap@shrdlu.com
Wigan