Languages, Nationalities, and Religions: Capitalization
Languages, nationalities, peoples, religions, and adherent names are proper-name categories in the reviewed guidance. Combining them in one guide makes the shared rule clear while preserving a boundary: not every adjective about culture, belief, geography, or identity is automatically a formal proper name.
Capitalize formal names of languages, nationalities, peoples, religions, and adherent groups: for example, Spanish, Brazilian, Sámi, Islam, Muslim, Buddhism, and Christian. Keep ordinary descriptive words lowercase unless they are themselves part of a proper name.
Key details
Important caveats
Generic Word Boundary
Do not capitalize an ordinary descriptive noun or adjective merely because it appears near a nationality, language, or religion. Capitalization belongs to the established proper name itself.
Further guidance
Languages And Nationalities
Use initial capitals for language and nationality names such as “Spanish,” “Portuguese,” “Brazilian,” and “French.” Official language names do not always match the country name, so verify the correct name rather than inventing a form.
Peoples And Groups
Recognized people and regional group names in the reviewed government style take initial capitals, for example “Sámi,” “Asian,” and “Basque.” Use the community’s current preferred name when that is relevant to the document.
Religions And Adherents
Formal religion and adherent names are capitalized: examples in reviewed university guidance include “Catholicism,” “Buddhists,” “Islam,” “Muslims,” and “Christianity.”
Worked Examples
“She speaks Spanish and Portuguese.” “The report discusses Buddhist and Christian communities.” “The regional survey includes Basque speakers.”
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- Nationalities, peoples and places outside Australia (opens in a new tab)Australian Government Style Manual · Current government style uses initial capitals for names of nationalities, peoples, and languages. Supports the proper-name principle while remaining scoped to an editorial system.
- Proper Nouns (opens in a new tab)George Mason University Writing Center · Explains that proper nouns are capitalized and gives religions and adherents such as Catholicism, Buddhists, Islam, Muslims, and Christianity as examples. Later copy must distinguish formal names from generic descriptive words.