Thank you for your comment – it certainly had us stumped for a bit, because not capitalizing the ‘y’ in ‘your Honor’ seems to go against the grain. After doing a great deal of research, we found that most sources recommend capitalizing both the ‘y’ and the ‘h’, as in ‘Your Honor’ – as this title is taking the place of the judge’s name, and is meant to honor him or her.

I contacted Robert Hickey, Deputy Director, The Protocol School of Washington, and author of Honor and Respect: The Official Guide to Names, Titles, and Forms of Address to get his input on this question. His reply was:

” I like your logic … but the closest I can suggest — is that I have consistently found that when the courtesy title is at the beginning of a line … the article is capitalized … but when it is in the middle of a sentence, then the article is not: For example.
On an envelope:
The Honorable Michael Bloomberg
Mayor of New York
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

But in a sentence, the “the” is not capitalized:
Today at 2:00 p.m. there will be an address by the Honorable Michael Bloomberg …

Of course it is not exactly comparable since ‘Your Honor’ is an oral form in the US … not a written form … so would not be on an invitation or letter. Salutations are based on oral forms of address …. but to a judge the name in the salutation would be Judge Smith not Your Honor.”

So, perhaps the ‘y’ isn’t capitalized when it falls into the middle of a sentence because the writers are following the similar rule for courtesy titles such as ‘the Honorable.’ Or, perhaps it’s a preference thing. In any case, we would still recommend that writers capitalize both words.

Yes, Summer Olympics is capitalized. Comment #4 (above) also addresses other times a season is capitalized.

if I am starting a sentence with a removed letter do I then capitalize the next letter? I’m thinking yes, but am not sure!
eg,
‘Twas

Thanks

You are correct – Moor or Moors is capitalized within the text. In your examples, the correct usage would be ‘barbarian Moor’ or ‘invading Moors’.

Thanks – Ben.

You’re absolutely right – this question does fall under honorifics. If Bob is nobility and you’re referring to him as ‘My Lord,’ it is capitalized. To quote question 9, “All honorific titles are capitalized, including Your Royal Highness, Her Royal Highness, Your Majesty, Your Grace, My Lord, and His Lordship.”