A proper noun used as an addressed person's name is called a noun of address. Common nouns name everything else, things that usually are not capitalized. A group of related words can act as a single noun-like entity within a sentence. proper noun, which names a specific person, place, or thing (Carlos, Queen Marguerite, Middle East, Jerusalem, Malaysia, Presbyterianism, God, Spanish, Buddhism, the Republican Party), is almost always capitalized.