Iris' Iris's ..

[tulipsunday]

Which is correct or both?

Iris' hat

Iris's hat

Thanks. Did google it but read different answers so still not completely sure.

This might be absolute bullshit but I was told it would be Iris’ hat…. unless the name in question is an English name, then it would be Iris’s hat (see, for example, St.James’s Park in London).

So now we just need to figure out whether Iris is an English name. I guess it is…?

I'm not English, but am English speaking, and I would have said both are correct.
But my style would be Iris' hat.

(Does Iris herself need to be English @ViaRia01 ?)

This is a situation where what is strictly correct can be so cumbersome that it's acceptable to do something more sane straightforward.

Both are correct, it's more of a writing style preference. I'd use Iris', as I was taught as such. Iris's wouldn't bother me to read though.

@SofaSpuds haha, I have no idea. It’s one of those things I was told maybe ten years ago and still remember… although I’m not really sure in practice how that could be true!

Both are correct. My DS has a name that ends in s and I am extremely pedantic!

Spoken, I tend to use s’s so it comes out like “Marcuses homework” (not real name but similar).

Written I tend to favour Marcus’.

Thank you all.

I wouldn't know either. Same with Charles. I would tend to say Charles's.

I think that Iris’ hat is technically correct as in that’s what’s in grammar books. But Iris’s hat is now perfectly acceptable because it just makes more bloody sense!

Both are entirely correct. It’s an individual or individual style sheet issue, like the Oxford comma.

When I was younger I would probably have said Iris' hat, but at some time in my life I heard someone point out that we say St. James's Park, so now I would say Iris's hat.

However you say it. You'd say the extra s so you need to include it.

I think the exception is ancient names like Jesus or Moses.

I say it should be Iris's. Just think about how you say it.

Thanks all

How to say it and how you spell it are two separate things!

Iris' - pronounced Iris's.
If only English was a easy as pronouncing it like it's spelled 😵‍💫

Yes agreed, if I were reading out a text that said Marcus’ I would still say it as “Marcuses”. But I would not consider written Marcus’s to be incorrect.

The classical position is that names ending in ‘s’ add ‘s in the possessive unless they’re very significant religious or historical figures.

So:

Iris’s hat.
James’s coat.
Ms Cross’s class.
Moses’ laws.
Jesus’ teachings.

But I don’t think it matters much these days.

Wow that’s interesting! How do people decide where to draw the line between significant and non-significant historical figures?

I mean, you’ve picked two real biggies there for your illustration. But would it be Gemma Collins’ programme, or Gemma Collins’s programme I wonder? 😂

The first. However, autocorrect will fight you to the death on it

And if I become a significant historical figure 100 years after my death do I stay
Mary Bagpus's hat 👒 for 99 years, and then...
Mary Bagpus' hat 👒 from 100 years onwards??

I didn't realise this was ever a problem until we named 2 of our kids names ending in S. My mil was a teacher and told me it was Marcus' but we never really liked each other so I always wrote Marcus's just to annoy her.

But then when the Royal Family kids went to a school called Thomas's I thought that looked weird written down. But surely the Royal Family, being the height of manners and correctness, wouldn't send their kids to a school with a gramatically incorrect name?

But that must mean St Thomas' hospital is wrong. Or does that fall under the famous religious people rule?

I reckon an actual Saint probably counts as a religiously significant figure 😀.

I actually thought it was spelled St Thomas’s as it’s always said Thomases!

But in the same vain, Iris’ hat or Iris’s hat would both be pronounced as Irises hat. I was always taught that with a noun ending with -s we wouldn’t need to repeat the ‘s’ when we are using possessive ‘s. And then we’d always be told that there were always exceptions to the rule 😋.

Oh and here’s a thought. We don’t always pronounce the possessive ‘s as ‘es’. For instance, there isn’t an ‘es’ sound in 2 years’ experience.

It's long been a topic for discussion in my city due to the name of our football ground, so I write it like this. Similarly with my DDs name (although it always looks weird to me)