# Business names that have a lower case first letter **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 23, 2008, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-names-that-have-a-lower-case-first-letter/464827 "2008-09-23T13:24:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![survineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@survineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/survineer)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-names-that-have-a-lower-case-first-letter/464827/1 "2008-09-23T13:24:13Z")
What would be the proper way to address such a company in a formal letter? ms consultants ([www.msconsultants.com](http://www.msconsultants.com)) and _true **north** _ ([www.truenorth.org](http://www.truenorth.org)) seem to be very thorough about spelling out their names in a very particular way on their websites. _true **north** _ even italicizes and bolds half of their name. So would there be a correct way to designate these companies in the inside address or beginning a sentence? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-names-that-have-a-lower-case-first-letter/464827/2 "2008-09-23T13:27:05Z")
For the inside address I would keep it lowercase. As the first word of a sentence, I would capitalize it. I wouldn’t pay attention to honoring italics and bolding, although it seems that in truenorth’s literature, they always keep it lowercase and they both italicize and bold it. It’s all a question of style–there’s no real one “correct” way to do it. (Oh, and i _hate_ that plaintext-bold-no spaces typesetting (or other variation, like italic-bold-no spaces) of brand names. It looks cliched and lazy design to me.) ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-names-that-have-a-lower-case-first-letter/464827/3 "2008-09-23T14:42:40Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > (Oh, and i _hate_ that plaintext-bold-no spaces typesetting (or other variation, like italic-bold-no spaces) of brand names. It looks cliched and lazy design to me.) But WWW address formats encourage companies to run the name together. StraightDope would be nice. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-names-that-have-a-lower-case-first-letter/464827/4 "2008-09-23T18:57:18Z")
The proper way to address such companies is with insufferable pretension. For example, you should right-justify all your text, and you should choose one letter to capitalize no matter where it appearS or how dumb it lookS. Besides, “truenorth” is just a cheezy midwest convenience store chain. Who are they fooling with the .org domain? Why do they deserve a formal letter? I mean, sorry to be so unhelpful, but if somebody asked you how to make Barney like them, wouldn’t your instinct be to ask them why? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-names-that-have-a-lower-case-first-letter/464827/5 "2008-09-23T19:15:57Z")
How is it registered? That’s how I’d capitalize it. eBay, for example.