The fast-growing city of Farmington in northern Utah is building a new high school. It won't open until next year but it already has a mascot...the Phoenix. One father, after first hearing of the mascot got together with a couple of his neighbors to practice cheers for the upcoming sports teams. "Go Phoenixes!" It didn't sound right to us, so we checked the pluralization and found that while Phoenixes is acceptable, another is Phoenices. He was so horrified that the latter sounded like penises that he started a petition to change the mascot's name. While the school district said there are no plans to change it, the petition has almost 3,000 signees. https://deadspin.com/utah-parent-wants-school-mascot-renamed-because-it-soun-1820431720
Why not simply Farmington High School Phoenix. Not many, just one. At Tulane, we were the Green Wave, not the Green Waves. Also, people are idiots.
Singular. When I was in HS one of our cross-town schools had to change their mascot from Sun Devils which evidently could "promote satanism". People are idiots.
I thought Green Waves were WACS. Was there more than one Phoenix? If not, then there was no need for a plural.
Explain to him that the final syllable of Phoenices has a long e (as in feces): Fee-nih-sees, so it really doesn't sound like penises. The alternate plural of penis is penes, which does share an ultimate syllable, but nobody uses that.
A host of singular names as examples, or at least names that don't end in "s". And Elon, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, and Wilson College set the stage for you: Phoenix