Hey there, I just saw this thread.
Woods wrote:I need something short and striking and left-wing sounding.
(Also a good occasion to ask where (and if) I should place the hyphen in the last word combination. "Left-wing" is attributive to "sounding," but "sounding" is not a noun - did I place it right?)
The answer to that depends on the style you're following. Since "left-wing sounding" is being used predicatively here, the punctuation you used is probably fine according to most guides. If the phrase were attributive ("left wing sounding name"), you'd encounter some disagreement.
The Chicago Manual of Style, which is commonly used in publishing, would write "left wing–sounding name", with an en dash between "wing" and "sounding"; the use of the en dash instead of a hyphen indicates that one or both of the elements are themselves compounds.
The Associated Press Stylebook, preferred by news organizations, doesn't use en dashes, and it would write "left wing-sounding name" with a hyphen between "wing" and "sounding"; "left wing" is an obvious compound, but the Stylebook advises rephrasing if the compound is less recognizable.
The American Psychological Association, whose style guide is used in the social sciences, doesn't seem to have explicit guidance on this situation. However, one of the managers for its informational blog advised a commenter to write "health-care-associated infection", with hyphens between all of the modifier elements, so "left-wing-sounding name" in our example.
N'hésite pas à corriger mes erreurs.