I am wondering if anyone can tell me about the abbreviation "est." I am having an engraving done for a wedding. The engraving will go on a brass door knocker. There are 2 lines engraved. Line one is "The Smiths", line two is "est. 2007". I think that est. is only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence. Others seem to think that it is capitalized because it stands alone, even though it is being used here without a sentence structure.