Do you capitalize an alias that is in quotes?

Question

Do you capitalize an alias that is in quotes? for example, what would be the correct way to capitalize the following statement: Mary became known as "the girl with the wooden shoe".

Answer 1

The rules for titles within quotes are the same as those without. In this case:

Mary became known as "The Girl with the Wooden Shoe".

Answer 2

The crucial issue here is whether the descriptive phrase in question is in fact an alias (that is, an assumed name, like "Norm DePlume") or a universally or widely used nickname (like "the Red Rascal") or a rigidly formulaic descriptive name (like "the Woman in White"—or "the woman in white") or a more variable descriptive phrase by which a person is generally identified but whose particular wording may vary a bit (like "the guy who lost his money in the Coke machine and then flew into a rage and accidentally tipped the machine over and got crushed to death").

The first two categories are fairly uncontroversial, I think, because the replacement name supplants the person's real name, The third category is more ambiguous. A mysterious figure known only as "the Woman in White" might have her descriptive name styled in initial caps because she has no other known name. But Emily, who always wears white clothes, might be known as "Emily, the woman in white," or more simply as "the woman in white"—not as a replacement for her identity as Emily but as a common descriptive term that refers to her most striking characteristic.

The fourth category involves too long a phrase to make sense as a quasi-proper name for the person. Even if no one remembers the guy's real name, and even if most people use a wording to identify him that closely resembles "the guy who lost his money in the Coke machine and then flew into a rage and accidentally tipped the machine over and got crushed to death," it would seem absurd to use title case to identify him, unless one were trying to achieve a comic effect.

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In the OP's example, if Mary is not known to anyone in the town as Mary—because she arrived as a stranger there and never told anyone her name, then I think you'd have a strong case for saying

Mary became known as "the Girl with the Wooden Shoe."

On the other hand, if everyone in town knew that she was named Mary, but everyone also commonly spoke of her in connection with her wooden shoe, I think it would make more sense to describe her as "the girl with the wooden shoe," as in "Oh, sure, that's Mary, the girl with the wooden shoe." In that case, this less formal treatment seems more reasonable:

Mary became known as "the girl with the wooden shoe."

Of course, if Mary really was famous for walking around with just one wooden shoe all the time, she might very well acquire a simpler and more colorful nickname, like "Stumpy" or "Hopalong."