What’s up with the lowercase?

As humans, we are drawn to the significant, even if significance is symbolic and trivial, in the grand scheme. There is no better place to see this effectuated than in the english language. We capitalize proper nouns, we give ourselves titles, we give names to buildings, businesses, legislation, and the list goes on.

english isn’t the only language to do this. Other european languages, like french and spanish, do as well. The germans capitalize all nouns, proper or otherwise. But not all scripts work this way. arabic scripts, hebrew, thai, and brahmic scrips like telugu, kannada, or tamil do not capitalize proper nouns.

The use of capitalized names, titles, honorifics, and identifiers is so “normal” that it might as well be invisible. The rules are so accepted that the few times we really even notice them is when we’ve broken them. For example, as i write this, the previous paragraph is very loudly telling me i’ve done something wrong in bright red squiggles.

The question i pose here is why? Why have we built such rigid rules around capitalization and what effect, if any, does it have on our psychology?

Capitalization implies hierarchy. It lifts one word above others. In our names, it lifts the self. It silently reinforces importance, identity, separation. In silently implies this thing matters more than others.

That’s not inherently wrong, but it is worth pausing on. Because in a culture obsessed with status, platforms and personal brands, i believe we’ve over-learned the lesson. The capital “I” looms large.

Consider, also, titles and honorifics. On the one hand, they are utilitarian. They’re a short-hand way of knowing what a person does and what they’ve achieved. On the other hand, they support hierarchical systems and supply the ego with a nice little boost. Taken to the extreme, we’re met with the “do you know who I am?!” personalities.

i don’t say all this to suggest that I am opposed to titles or to the capitalization of proper nouns. No, i’ve adopted a title, myself: chief fear hunter. This title has utility; it gives you a high level sense of what i’m about. That said, i’d like to keep it in its place.

When i lowercase my name, my title, or my work – crossroads – i am not simply making an aesthetic choice or trying to be clever. i am reminding myself that i am not the point. It is a subtle yet intentional gesture; a way to stay grounded. A way to say that this work is not about ego, but offering. That the value is not in the title, but the transformation. “i” hold no importance.

Others, too, have made this choice. bell hooks, for instance, and john a. powell, who has said that he spells his name in lowercase in the belief that we should be “part of the universe, not over it, as capitals signify.”

As beliefs go, i quite like that.

So, for me, this small typographic choice is a quiet gesture of humility. Not performative modesty, but an invitation:

let the work speak louder than the name.