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Mar 19, 2015 - 4:54PM

Re: Girl's Basketball Camp vs. Girls' Basketball Camp

June

I think "Girl’s Basketball Camp" is reporting a GENDER (singular) not the NUMBER (plural) of girls.

So the correct format should be “Girl’s Basketball Camp” and “Boy’s Basketball Camp”.

Just like “women’s basketball” and “men’s basketball” are used to label the sports. It is about GENDER. i.e. the camp or sport belongs to ONE gender. Therefore singular.

Gender is irrelevant. It all depends on the plurality of the possessor noun:
(One) girl's basketball camp(s).
(Two) girls' basketball camp(s)

(One) man's / woman's basketball(s).
(Two) men's / women's basketball(s).

June

anybody confirm this, please? I don't think it matches this rule:

Re: 's or s'
1 dancer & 1 costume - dancer's costume
1 dancer & 2 costumes - dancer's costumes
2+ dancers & 1 costume - dancers' costume
2+ dancers & 2+ costumes - dancers' costumes.

Those are all correct.

June

or maybe it does:
1 GENDER of campers & 1 camp - Girl's Summer Camp
1 GENDER of campers & 2 camps - Girl's Summer Sports Camps
There are not more than one gender of girls, so these are only options.

No, gender doesn't enter into it, see above.

June

what about "Kid's Summer Sports Camp" ? The camp belongs to a class of people made up of kids, so it is referring to the class (singular), so it's "Kid's camp" ?

Again, it all depends on the plurality of the possessor noun:

(One) kid's summer sports camp.
(Two) kids' summer sports camp.

PaulM