Comma usage in this sentence

In My Humble Opinion
1

There’s a bit of a debate at work about how to properly use commas in this sentence, and I wanted to get opinions. Where would you place commas?

“Several years ago X son of Y did Z.”
The debate arises because if you take the “son of Y” bit out, it should be:

“Several years ago, X did Z.”

But if you take the “Several years ago” part, it would be:

“X, son of Y, did Z.”

But the result of that reasoning seems to be ridiculous:

“Several years ago, X, son of Y, did Z.”
I copped out and said rewrite the sentence, but if force to choose I would drop the comma after “ago”. What do people think?

2

Keep all the commas, or, as you concluded, rewrite the sentence so it runs more smoothly.

3

“Several years ago X, son of Y, did Z.”

That would be my choice. For no particular reason.

4

I’d drop the comma following ‘ago’. I’m not sure if that’s ‘correct’, but I don’t think comprehensibility suffers without it, and it does make it more easily readable.

5

Technically, it should include all the commas. But to make it more readable, drop the one after “ago.”

6

The sentence needs all three commas, but rewriting for clarity is always valid.

7

My answer too.

8

“Several years ago, X (son of Y) did Z” seems to read quite naturally to me. I view the brackets as a shorter pause than the commas they replace.

9

You can also change it to:

“X, son of Y, did Z several years ago.”

One fewer comma, just as comprehensible, and no grammatical issues.

10

You can drop the comma after “Several years ago.” However, I do prefer Dead Cat’s and Alessan’s reformulations.

11

“Several years ago X, son of Y, did Z.” The commas set off the clause.

“Several years ago X did Z.” There is no modifying clause to set off. Putting a comma in that sentence is an error.

12

If I was Z’s father, I’d probably be pissed and probably give Y a call about keeping X on a shorter leash.