Grammar girl here. Today I'm going to give you a quick and dirty tip about making names

that end in S plural. I have a great article by Gretchen McCulloch about a writing phenomenon

called a Crash Blossom and I have a tidbit about funny assides in style guides. Style

guide writers have personalities and sometimes those funny personalities come through in their

writing. Last week a woman asked me how to make her last name plural. She had recently

married and become Mrs. Mears and she wanted to know whether she and her husband are simply

the Mears or if together they are the Mears' making it plural by adding an ES to the end.

She wrote quote, I'm aware that if the word ends with an S you would normally add an ES

to pluralize as in Lewis and the Lewis's. However I've also heard about the exception when

the word that ends in S has the sound of a Z such as withers as opposed to the sound

of an S as with Lewis. I used to think the plural would be the Mears's but after some

research I'm wondering if perhaps it should indeed be the Mears. Her question made me

pause. I was 99% sure it should be the Mears's but when she mentioned the sounds like a Z rule

I did vaguely remember hearing something like that somewhere so I did some research just

to be sure. The Chicago Manual of Style, the AP Style book, Garner's Modern American

Usage and the Cambridge Guide to English Usage all say to make names that end with S plural

by adding ES and make no exceptions for pronunciation. Garner is particularly adamant that adding ES

is the only way to do it. The one source I found that does mention the Z exception is

the online guide to grammar and writing produced by the Capital Community College Foundation

and even then they say their exceptions to the rule. For example the site says it would

be Jones's even though Jones ends with a Z sound. I usually consider that site to be

a credible source but in this case with so many other sources lined up against it and

...