Organisation names

Organisation names can cause confusion because some institutions depart from regular spelling and punctuation as part of their brand. If you are not certain, always check how an organisation spells its own name. Otherwise, follow regular conventions for capitalisation and the use of the article ‘the’ in front of a name.

Spelling

Check the correct spelling on the organisation’s website, including use of the ampersand

World Health Organization

Dolce & Gabbana

In an international world, some organisations will spell their name with non-Australian conventions. In particular, watch for ‘ize’ spellings and ampersands. If you’re unfamiliar with the name, check it online.

International Organization for Standardization

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)

H&M

Stone & Wood Brewing Co.

Punctuation

Include punctuation marks if the organisation uses them

Dan Murphy’s

Tiffany & Co.

Similar to spelling, follow an organisation’s preferred use of punctuation, such as apostrophes, full stops and hyphens . Don’t add or remove these to suit your own house style.

McDonald’s

Coca-Cola

Kmart

At the same time, apply some judgement if including an official punctuation mark could confuse your readers. For example, the exclamation mark in the company name ‘Yahoo!’ has led to some ambiguous headlines:

Yahoo! Investors Don’t Need to Worry About the IRS

Capital letters

Use title case unless the organisation styles its name differently

Department of Agriculture and Fisheries

nib Health Funds

Most organisations will spell their name in title case, where each major word in the name has an initial capital. But be aware that some companies style themselves with lower case (no capitals) or camel case (capitals mid-phrase) as part of their brand.

Follow an organisation’s preferred style unless it might create some ambiguity to do so. It is also safest to check an organisation's website for its spelling. Designers often use all caps for visual emphasis, when the name otherwise takes title case in text.

Budget Direct

Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission

adidas

PricewaterhouseCoopers

Regardless of the treatment in a full title, use lower case in the generic or short form of an organisation’s name, particularly for government agencies or public associations.

Full name	Short reference
Administrative Appeals Tribunal	the tribunal
Department of Energy	the department
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies	the institute
Mental Health Coordinating Council	the council

Definite article

Generally leave ‘the’ in lower case and don’t use it with an acronym

the Office of Financial Regulation

the OFR

A final point of uncertainty in organisation names is when to use the definite article ‘the’ and whether to capitalise it.

You don’t need to capitalise an article in most cases, unless the organisation uses it as part of their full name. Of course, capitalise any article that falls at the start of sentence.

the Australian Human Rights Commission

The Reject Shop

When shortening a name into an acronym, you can usually remove the article altogether. On the other hand, initialisms might keep the article. In these cases, an organisation’s website will usually show you its preferred style.

ASIC

DFAT

the ICAC

the ABC

See also: Articles, Capital letters and cases, Expression, Government, Spelling