---
title: "Capitalization"
source: 18F Guides
source_url: https://github.com/18F/guides
licence: CC0-1.0
domain: engineering
subdomain: 18f-guides
date_added: 2026-04-25
---

Follow a consistent capitalization scheme.

Creating trustworthy internal and external communications relies, to a large extent, on the content’s consistency. Inconsistent spellings and capitalizations undermine your narrative authority. We follow these capitalization guidelines:

- Do capitalize proper nouns, including names of individuals, places, and agencies
- Don't capitalize _agile,_ unless it is the first word of a sentence
- Don't capitalize _open source,_ unless it is the first word of a sentence
- Don't capitalize _federal_ or _government_

When you're deciding whether to capitalize noun phrases, keep in mind that in English, title case is often a marker of formality. Using it judiciously can help clarify that you're speaking about a specific, official thing (such as a form, office, or person). Overuse can cause users stress by implying formality or officialness where it doesn't exist. For instance:

- It makes sense to capitalize the phrase _Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return_ because you want users to know the exact, official title of that specific form.
- It could confuse users to capitalize _income taxes_ or _income tax forms_, because those phrases could refer to any number of possible forms.

See additional capitalization rules in the [specific words and phrases]({{ "/content-guide/our-style/specific-words-and-phrases/" | url }})
section.

## Personal titles

Don’t capitalize personal titles unless they precede a name. For example, *the director got approval* or *Director Lopez got approval*. Whenever possible, keep titles gender neutral. For example, we prefer *firefighter* to *fireman* and *chairperson* to *chairman*.

## Headings

Headlines, page titles, subheads and similar content should follow sentence case, and should not include a trailing colon. For example:

> _Making sense of Washington’s tech landscape_

> _Privileges and responsibilities_
