Should "della" be capitalized in the middle of an Italian business name?

April 6, 2010 9:25 AM

Italian speakers/readers/writers: my client is naming his new business "Studio Della Statua" or "Studio della Statua". I know that in English, the second capitalization scheme would be fine, but...

... it seems that in Italian, the "Della" might be capitalized as part of the title, partly because in conversation the name of the business might be shortened to just "Della Statua".

He's not a native speaker of Italian, but he's been living in Florence for a number of years and is pretty sharp. He knows a lot more about Italian than anyone else I know, but I know only a few words from some songs.

Examples of similar reputable business titles with "della" in the middle would be awesome.

He's been working on a logo (all three words) with "della" in lower case, but wants to capitalize all three words where they're used in the text. I'm going to suggest that consistency would be best with a business name, but would like a little more knowledge myself first.

We have a phone call scheduled at 3:00 EDT. He has the flu. I'm going to try to keep it simple :)

posted by amtho to writing & language (9 answers total)

I should also say that he's been working on a logo with "della" in lower case, so I'd love for that to be correct ("Studio della Statua").
posted by amtho at 9:27 AM on April 6, 2010

I don't think I've ever seen it capitalized that way. Italian newspapers, like Corriere della Sera, do not capitalize it in their titles.
posted by Melismata at 9:36 AM on April 6, 2010

Google is your friend.
posted by Jaltcoh at 9:41 AM on April 6, 2010

A company name is can be in WHATEVER style you want. Upper-case, lower-case, all caps, all small--whatever.
But the conventions for capitalization of things such as titles of books/movies/plays/etc. generally state that all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs are capitalized, and articles and shorter prepositions are not.
E.g., "The Lord of the Rings," "The Fix Is In," Snoopy Flew into the Cloud," etc. (Yes, I made up the last two.)
Mileage, though, will vary, as different style guides have different rules, but as long as you stick to the above you'll generally always be correct.

Now, "della" means "from the" or "of the," if I am translating correctly, so, as a preposition, it would not be upper-case (although sometimes prepositions of five or more letters ARE upper-cased in titles! Depends on the style guide, once again!)

But as I said, a name of a company can be style however you want!
posted by mixer at 9:56 AM on April 6, 2010

because in conversation the name of the business might be shortened to just "Della Statua"

It wouldn't. Or shouldn't. That's about as bad as referring to the artist as "da Vinci". Despite the success of a certain recent book/movie, that is totally wrong. The artist, if a shorter form is required, should be referred to as "Leonardo", and your friend's studio as "lo Studio".

On the capitalisation or not, Melismata and Jaltcoh have it.
posted by aqsakal at 10:02 AM on April 6, 2010

doesn't italian work like spanish and i think french also where actually only the first word of a title is capitalized?

do you like how i ignored all capitalization rules in this note?
posted by saraindc at 11:39 AM on April 6, 2010

Da Vinci! We would write "da Vinci" in the middle of a sentence, which is an excellent example. Thanks to Melismata, too, for that example. And the Google listing was quite helpful; that's an approach I'd normally try, but I assumed (without testing) that "della" was to common a word for that to work. Thank you!

(If one is comparing two studios, one might talk about a friend's studio for oil painting as compared to "della Statua", and if one is comparing the ninja turtle to the renaissance artist, one might talk about the turtle vs. da Vinci legitimately, yes? Anyway, it doesn't matter, you've been very helpful.)
posted by amtho at 11:41 AM on April 6, 2010

What's the meaning you would like to give to the preposition?
If thought as a part of a surname it can be capitalized or uncapitalized (like the italian surname Della Vedova or Della/della Rovere)
If you use it as a preposition so that when you think of it you really mean "of the Statue", it's more correct to write it uncapitalized (as in Senato della Repubblica = Senate of the Republic)
posted by volpe at 1:53 PM on April 6, 2010

Da Vinci! We would write "da Vinci" in the middle of a sentence

I wouldn't, because it's incorrect*. "Da Vinci" merely means "from [the town of] Vinci", a way of identifying which Leonardo you were referring to at a time when surnames were not yet in firm use. "Which Leonardo do you mean?" - "The one from Vinci." - "Oh, that one!" OK, I admit that referring to "Da Vinci" or "da Vinci" has become widespread in English usage, thanks in part to Dan Brown, but I wouldn't recommend using it in Italy, where it still puts people's teeth on edge and stigmatises the user as poorly educated.

like the italian surname Della Vedova or Della/della Rovere

There is in fact a distinction in modern surnames. The upper-case version is, paradoxically, the regular folks' version, and is by far the more common. The lower-case version (and this applies to Italian surnames with any prefix, like del, dei, de', etc.) is the aristocratic version; people proud of their aristocratic origin will insist on it, and specify it when spelling out their name for you.

* But then, I'm one of those dreadful old pedants who still insist on using "data" and "media" as a plural...
posted by aqsakal at 12:26 AM on April 7, 2010