According to MLA and APA grammar guidelines, the rules for apostrophes are as follows: (Note: The pertinent rule regarding Travis's Barber Shop example is: If a singular proper noun ends in s, form the possessive by adding 's, for example, Dickens's). * To form the possessive of a singular noun, add 's. o boy's cat's New Jersey's * To form the possessive of a plural noun that already ends in s, add only the apostrophe. o dogs' (belonging to more than one dog) o workers' (belonging to a group of workers) o hands' (My hands' skin was very dry after the long winter.) * To form the possessive of an irregular plural noun that doesn't end in s (like men or children), add 's. o The children's lunch arrived late. * If a singular proper noun ends in s, form the possessive by adding 's o Dickens's * DO NOT use an apostrophe to form the plural of an abbreviation or numbers o Correct: the 1990s -- Incorrect: the 1990's o Correct: VCRs -- Incorrect: VCR's P.S.: My husband and son-in-law use the services of Travis's Barber Shop and both agree that Travis is an excellent barber.

My wife's grandmother gets the paper from here and I saw their grand opening article in the paper. I laughed so had my face hurt from all the stupid people standing happily in front of "Travis's Barber Shop". I can't believe out of ALL of those people, and a professional sign maker, no one is aware of the error. When something end in an S, the possessive form would be Travis' not Travis's. What you have is phonetically pronounced "Tra-vis-suh-sez" not "Tra-vis-ez". Take the superfluous S off the sign morons.