There are three Katys in the class

[DandelionDahlia]

Would anyone be able to tell me if this is grammatically correct?

Or should it be "three Katies"?

They all spell their name Katy.

I think that it is but it's a clunky way of writing it.

If all three spell their name Katy, it should be Katys. The spelling of their name will not change because there are several or them; you don't need to try to apply a y/ies pluralisation rule.

Katie is a different name.

This always bothers me too. I suppose since it’s a name, it should be “Katys” as you’ve written it, but not changing the -y to -ies doesn’t sit right with me!

Katys because that's how they spell their names. You don't change the spelling just because it's a plural when it's someones name.

If in doubt, add an apostrophe

In the class there are three girls named Katy.

It's a name, so surely the original spelling is retained and the simple plural marker is used.

If they're all Katy why would you change it to Katie, it's a different name. Did add an apostrophe though.

This is hugely helpful, thank you.

It’s Katys if they all spell their name Katy.

It's so helpful to get a clear consensus, thanks all

Yes this

You just stick an 's' on the end, you dont change the whole spelling for a name

So 3 Mollys, rather than 3 Mollies

don’t change the spelling. But I would probably rewrite the sentence. Eg There are three girls called Katy in the class.

I do think that the plural of Katy must be Katies. Just because in English most words with a Y ending change to 'ies' in plural. Stories, cavities, ladies etc.

There are three children named Katy in the class.

Avoids the issue.

And now seen that a previous poster beat me to it.

I’m very disappointed, I came on to say there were six of my name in my year group of 75 and it wasn’t even a common name!

Katys is correct. But PP is wrong to add an apostrophe, you wouldn't add an apostrophe to pluralise the name.

I'd write Katys' it's probably wrong though!

This is a really nice question! This page has a detailed discussion with references (the consensus is Katys - plurals of proper nouns usually end "ys" with exceptions for certain "illustrious names").

I opened this thread planning to say "obviously the plural of Katy is Katies" because I didn't think that's what it would be about. And I would have been joking. It's Katys.

Thinking of more names ending y

Cory
Davy
Humphrey
Suzy

There are 3 Cories/Davies/Humphries/Suzies - not right

What about James?

1x James
2x James’s , but the apostrophe normally denotes a missing letter?

2 James

Or is it Jameses?

That doesnt look right and its underscored in red, but then my grammar is not great