Nicholas Bodley wrote:

>On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 17:36:36 -0400, Richard Wordingham
><richard.wordingham@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>>However, the apostrophe inconsistently vanishes in proper names, e.g.
>>the variation in placenames such as "St Martins" in Salop (Anglice
>>'Shropshire') but "St Martin's" near Perth (the old Scottish capital).
>>Omission seems to be the rule in surnames.
>>
>>
>
>Locally, afaik, there's never an apostrophe in "Marthas Vineyard".
>

And there's the popular clothing retailer Lands' End, which has a
shockingly misplaced apostrophe that they cheerfully admit to, but
that's the way it is since early in their history apparently (I seem to
recall something about a typo that stuck). Johns Hopkins University
isn't a possessive, but it sounds like one.

~mark