The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: page moved. Malcolmxl5 (talk) 23:28, 27 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Pipe Major → Pipe major – Article is about the common noun. Such terms of rank are capitalised only when used as a proper noun, ie, in the title and name of an officebearer. Bjenks (talk) 06:22, 8 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with *'''Support''' or *'''Oppose''', then sign your comment with ~~~~. Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's policy on article titles.

• Support. Although I opposed moving ranks to lower case in the first place, almost all now have been, so consistency means this should be moved too. -- Necrothesp (talk) 20:55, 9 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
• Support Compare to Brigadier general, Lance corporal, etc. --BDD (talk) 22:26, 17 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Any additional comments:

• In common usage, Pipe Major appears to be capitalized more often than drum major. Apteva (talk) 02:05, 9 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The standard rule (per Hart's Rules, p. 26, is that "Words for titles and ranks are generally lower-case unless they are used before a name, as a name, or in forms of address." This means that the following forms are correctly capitalised: Pipe Major McTavish; Talk to (McTavish) our Pipe Major; Dear Pipe Major McTavish. The following forms are correctly written in lower-case: McTavish is a pipe major, one of dozens of pipe majors in the service. The rule is exactly the same for any rank. How many privates are there in the regiment, how many generals? But—Private Simpson, General Macarthur. If you look up, e.g., "major general" at p. 227 in the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, it specifies lower-case for "army and US air force rank (cap. in titles, abbrev. Maj. Gen.}" Both of the cited references are explicitly careful to consider common usage as well as educated precedents. Bjenks (talk) 16:14, 9 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.