If I had to name a store selling bird houses from the three following options, which one would sound the most appropriate?
- Bird's Nest
- Birds' Nest
- Birds Nest
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1Birds' nests are rarely occupied by a single bird, so my suggestion would be - birds' nest. – WS2 Sep 22 '15 at 20:58
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2All three are said the same way; apostrophes are silent. – John Lawler Sep 22 '15 at 21:10
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If you are selling bird houses, perhaps 'Nest' should be plural? – IconDaemon Sep 22 '15 at 22:27
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From a marketing perspective rather than a language one (because all three would be appropriate) Birds' [bird-sis] sounds the most awkward, no? – faraza Sep 22 '15 at 23:56
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Why not call it "The Bird Nest" – michael_timofeev Sep 23 '15 at 00:56
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@faraza didn't know it pronounces that way, valid point, it would be a pain for people to pronounce it. – elideli Sep 23 '15 at 01:38
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@michael_timofeev because it's an online store and TheBirdNest.com is taken. – elideli Sep 23 '15 at 01:38
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I think I'm just going to brand it as Birdsnest in one word. – elideli Sep 23 '15 at 01:41
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1@LyesD Well, that's a bummer...I kinda liked that option...Thebirdhouse.com is still available. – michael_timofeev Sep 23 '15 at 01:42
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@LyesD I like Birdsnest. – michael_timofeev Sep 23 '15 at 01:43
2 Answers
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They all have different meanings.
Bird's Nest means "the nest of a (single) bird."
Birds' Nest means "the nest of some number of birds."
Birds Nest means exactly that, "birds (do) nest," with nest as a verb.
For simplicity's sake, and considering it is going to be the name of a store and people will inevitably mess it up anyway and you'll have to constantly correct everyone, I would go with Birds Nest, which has a subtle double meaning. Birds do nest, and hopefully if you're selling bird-houses, they will nest in those. Good luck!
Chellspecker
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Either of the first two would be good, but if people looked at "Birds Nest", they would think you'd forgotten an apostrophe somewhere and had made a grammatical mistake.
"Birds' Nest" or "Bird's Nest" are noun phrases, but "Birds Nest" is not. It's true that it's a grammatical sentence and a true statement (birds do nest), but while it might be cool to have a double meaning, it's not going to be immediately apparent to most people since "birds' nest" or "bird's nest" are such common phrases. "Birds nest" will seem like an error at first glance.
Yee-Lum
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