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initialism [ih-nish-uh-liz-uh m] noun

 

1. a set of initials representing a name, organization, or the like, with each letter pronounced separately, as FBI for Federal Bureau of Investigation.
2. a name or term formed from the initial letters of a group of words and pronounced as a separate word, as NATO for North Atlantic Treaty Organization; an acronym.

The New York Times’s practice is to print acronyms of proper names entirely in capitals if they have four letters or fewer: NATO, NASA, PIN, SALT. With longer acronyms, only the first letter is capitalized: Unesco, Nascar, Unicef, Nasdaq, and so on.

 

However, many publications—the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Christian Science Monitor, among them—disagree and prefer [all-caps names].

 

The Chicago Manual of Style, which is widely used in book publishing, generally prefers the all-capital form unless the term is listed otherwise in standard dictionaries.

How do I write "xkcd"? There's nothing in Strunk and White about this.

 

For those of us pedantic enough to want a rule, here it is: The preferred form is "xkcd", all lower-case. In formal contexts where a lowercase word shouldn't start a sentence, "XKCD" is an okay alternative. "Xkcd" is frowned upon.

initialism [ih-nish-uh-liz-uh m] noun

1. a set of initials representing a name, organization, or the like, with each letter pronounced separately, as FBI for Federal Bureau of Investigation.
2. a name or term formed from the initial letters of a group of words and pronounced as a separate word, as NATO for North Atlantic Treaty Organization; an acronym.

The New York Times’s practice is to print acronyms of proper names entirely in capitals if they have four letters or fewer: NATO, NASA, PIN, SALT. With longer acronyms, only the first letter is capitalized: Unesco, Nascar, Unicef, Nasdaq, and so on.

However, many publications—the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Christian Science Monitor, among them—disagree and prefer [all-caps names].

The Chicago Manual of Style, which is widely used in book publishing, generally prefers the all-capital form unless the term is listed otherwise in standard dictionaries.

How do I write "xkcd"? There's nothing in Strunk and White about this.

For those of us pedantic enough to want a rule, here it is: The preferred form is "xkcd", all lower-case. In formal contexts where a lowercase word shouldn't start a sentence, "XKCD" is an okay alternative. "Xkcd" is frowned upon.

From the perspective of utility to the reader, the reason for this is obvious: initialisms must remain capitalized to signify that they are not regular words. Consider the following (terrible, contrived example):

It should be clear now that the chief driving force behind an initialization losing its capitalization and entering the vernacular is the same for every other ongoing change in language: repetition of us, scale of adoption, spread of familiarity.

Second, there are organizations known by their acronyms remain capitalized because the acronym itself is a proper noun and rules of style dictate capitalization of the first letter to signify or respect their uniqueness and dignity. But as Guarav points out, sometimes acronym names are fully capitalized and sometimes they are only capitalized in their first letter. This turns out to be a matter of style as well. Abriding that gramarphobia article:

From the perspective of utility to the reader, the reason for this is obvious: initialisms must remain capitalized to signify that they are not regular words. Consider the following (terrible, contrived) example:

It should be clear now that the chief driving force behind an initialization losing its capitalization and entering the vernacular is the same for every other ongoing change in language: repetition of use, scale of adoption, spread of familiarity.

Second, there are organizations known by their acronyms remain capitalized because the acronym itself is a proper noun and rules of style dictate capitalization of the first letter to signify or respect their uniqueness and dignity. But as Guarav points out, sometimes acronym names are fully capitalized and sometimes they are only capitalized in their first letter. This turns out to be a matter of style as well. Abridging that gramarphobia article:

To the question at hand, the reason I mention this is to establish that the capitalization of the acronym does not relate to the capitalization; that is to say, capitalization is independent from the difference of initialism vs. acronym. Almost all initialisms are fully capitalized. Only when an abbreviation is a true acronym and pronounceable as a separate word does it appear to become eligible for alternate capitalization.

Capitalizing the initialisms signifies to the reader that these are not regular words. An experienced English speaker would instantly an a-phonetic, all-caps character grouping as an initialism, pronounce it as such and be able to locate a definition more easily (internet search engine capabilities notwithstanding). A new speaker of English would recognize the capitalization as well and at least would know that these are not regular words.

To the question at hand, the reason I included the above preface is to establish that the capitalization of the acronym does not relate to the pronunciation; that is to say, capitalization is independent from the difference of initialism vs. acronym. Almost all initialisms are fully capitalized. Only when an abbreviation is a true acronym and pronounceable as a separate word does it appear to become eligible for alternate capitalization.

Capitalizing the initialisms signifies to the reader that these are not regular words. An experienced English speaker would instantly recognize an a-phonetic, all-caps character grouping as an initialism, pronounce it as such and be able to locate a definition more easily (internet search engine capabilities notwithstanding). A new speaker of English would recognize the capitalization as well and at least would know that these are not regular words.