Full stops/periods and spaces with initials in different styles (2025)

Hello Everyone,
I have a specific question about full stops/periods and spaces with initials of names, as used in different versions of English/as recommended by different style guides.

I think BE uses no full stops and no spaces with initials (though there would be a space before the full word in both BE and AE) and it would be "SR Tendulkar" in BE (no full stops and no space between "S" and "R"). But in AE (or should I say A.E.?), it would
be S.R. Tendulkar (no space before "R" and there would be periods, of course). Isn't the latter what the Chicago Manual of Style recommends?

Thanks.

Emp

The Chicago Manual of Style is one copy-editing “bible”, but not the only one. In the UK, Judith Butcher’s Copy-editing for Cambridge University Press is a very worthy alternative.

In British English we do use full points between a person’s initials, but normally with no space between them. For other initials and acronyms, no punctuation is used, e.g. UK, USA, NATO, NHS, WHO. The basic guideline for abbreviations is to add a full point where something is omitted at the end of a word or title, not where the missing letters fall inside the abbreviation. Thus: Dr, Mr, Mrs, St (meaning Saint), but Mon., Tues., Wed., etc.

I agree with lingobingo for general use, but I've just looked up the British Guardian newspaper's style guide:

initials
no spaces or points, whether businesses or individuals, eg WH Smith, AJ Strauss​

Interesting that the Guardian also chooses a cricketer for their example. I bet the Chicago Manual of Style doesn't.

Perhaps the omission of points is a newspaper thing, rather than a BE/AE thing.

Thank you, both. I did know there are several style guides but I'm mainly concerned about two things: 1. The most widely accepted practice in BE with initials of names. 2. The Chicago Manual recommendation about it (for AE).
Thanks.

I would really appreciate more responses.

(I don't want to discuss other abbreviations here and am aware about the rule that a full stop is used if the last letter of the word is not part of the abbreviation, though there are exceptions to that as well.)

Even in my rather dusty 1993 edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, it says:

It is often an open question whether or not periods should be used with particular abbreviations. The trend now is strongly away from the use of periods with all kinds of abbreviations that have carried them in the past. …… Initials or personal names are also regularly followed by word spaces (E. F. Benson, R. G. T. Wundermacher).​

The University of Sussex has a useful guide to punctuation - linked in the resources at the top of this forum. From that source:

A person's initials are a kind of abbreviation, and these are usually followed by full stops: John D. Rockefeller, C. Aubrey Smith, O. J. Simpson. Increasingly, however, there is a tendency to write such initials without full stops: John D Rockefeller, C Aubrey Smith, O J Simpson. And note the rare special case illustrated by Harry S Truman: the S in this name never takes a full stop, because it's not an abbreviation for anything; President Truman's parents actually gave him the middle name S.
Abbreviations : Capital Letters and Abbreviations​

For myself, if I have ever put stops in initials I've forgotten doing it. I have recently been transcribing letters from 19th century US correspondents and the challenge of inserting the . in every instance of a personal initial is getting the better of me.

You'll find a mixture if you look for TS Eliot or George RR Martin.

So, Emp, you need to find out about the style guide for the organisation or publication you are writing for and follow that. And don't be surprised if you have to include . on Tuesday and omit it on Wednesday.

British style has also evolved, and along with it my own style has evolved too. In the old days, you might see B.B.C. with all the full stops. Everyone writes BBC these days.

And then we have the rule about abbreviations and contractions, where in British style we have Mr, Dr, Revd - but with Prof. and Rev. retaining their full stops. These days I omit them for all of those.

That rule might also prescribe T.S. Eliot. As you will probably guess, I go for TS Eliot these days.

Thank you so much, everybody. Deeply appreciated.

panjandrum said:

And don't be surprised if you have to include . on Tuesday and omit it on Wednesday.

Click to expand...