AfterJan Six (1618-1700), famously portraited by Rembrandt in 1654, there’s been 10 more generations of Sixes, and each of them has produced a ‘Jan’. Link to some fox news story discussing how the family still owns a bunch of Rembrandts. I think Jan Six XI works for Sotheby’s or something like that.
Setting dates for family gatherings must be a pain
Skipper on my first boat was Larry Mack Jr. His father died a year or so after he took command, and he dropped the “Jr.”
For some reason jr. and sr. have always annoyed me. If I did name a kid after myself I would definitely go with the “the Elder” and “the Younger” format.
Actually, I think some of his children are female, but still named George.
Egotistical, maybe?
My Dad has something of the same feelings. He’s never liked it when people use “Junior” as a nickname. So my “official” suffix is II, instead of Junior.
I use my suffix for voter registration, and a very few other things where it’s absolutely necessary to make a distinction. Other than that, I don’t use it at all.
Dad typically uses a nickname, and I typically don’t, so confusion is kept to reasonable minimum.
There is a person from my hometown who is VI (the sixth).
But do the Jan Sixes actually use this kind of ordinals? I am a bit wary about the article because US-based AP might have used the usage familar to Americans in their report (I discount “Jan Six X — sometimes called “Ten”” because journalists seem to have the habit of sometimes making up monikers).
Is there actually a common usage of Firstname Lastname Sr, Jr, I, II, etc outside the US? I only ever read about this kind of names in an US context.
A local obit with a suffix of VI. He had only daughters, so the suffixes stop there in his line.
You do know “junior” and “senior” are just Latin for “younger” and “elder,” right?
If this is true, it’s going to be very difficult for me to ever take Cato Junior or Pliny Junior seriously ever again.
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but I’m surprised no one here mentioned Christopher Columbus XX, the explorer’s (great^17)-grandson.
Powers &8^]
I don’t believe that in a country where everyone has a social security number, there would be serious problems.
In the UK it is only royals that have suffixes. My son, father and grandfather had the same name as me without any problem.
Beaten by his fifth-degree cousin Heinrich LXXV, who died at the age of one. Presumably of buffer overflow.
The German wiki article on their family mentions the name Heinrich 854 times.
You would be mistaken in that belief. Similarity in names causes all kinds of mistaken identity problems, and the existence of Social Security Numbers is not a cure.
I think that the complex rules were probably, if at all, followed rigorously only among aristocrats/polite society/very rich people, etc. At that level, it becomes a social club where one is expected to know George DuMont McGinnis Rochambeau-Whittier III is doing this year, whether he still owns the 100 meter yacht, and how his grandfather is doing. Also, you and all your relatives have to remember to send all of them a card, every year, and make appropriate visits. Since you’re following his family, as soon as his grandpa drops dead you know immediately what to write on the condolence letter that you will have your butler deposit in the post tomorrow morning.
Yes. Remember that in older days, names were more informal than they are now and it was much easier to change them casually. Nowadays, the DMV, the passport office, the IRS, ShittyBank, and the Sav-A-Lot grocery store rewards card program all require extensive documentation to change the name they have on file for you, even trivially, and you have to wait hours in line to do so.
I think that the complex rules were probably, if at all, followed rigorously only among aristocrats/polite society/very rich people, etc. At that level, it becomes a social club where one is expected to know George DuMont McGinnis Rochambeau-Whittier III is doing this year, whether he still owns the 100 meter yacht, and how his grandfather is doing. Also, you and all your relatives have to remember to send all of them a card, every year, and make appropriate visits. Since you’re following his family, as soon as his grandpa drops dead you know immediately what to write on the condolence letter that you will have your butler deposit in the post tomorrow morning.
Yes. Remember that in older days, names were more informal than they are now and it was much easier to change them casually. Nowadays, the DMV, the passport office, the IRS, ShittyBank, and the Sav-A-Lot grocery store rewards card program all require extensive documentation to change the name they have on file for you, even trivially, and you have to wait hours in line to do so.
I remember reading somewhere about a, I think, South Pacific culture where people change their name regularly throughout their life as they rack up accomplishments that are associated with additional names. It’s sort of similar to titles of achievement like BS or PhD that people tack on to the end of their names, but for them, the new title actually becomes part of their name itself. So instead of becoming John Smith, BS, MD, PhD, ASP, BBQ, XYZ, you become John CuresPancreaticCancer ParticlePhysicsGuru BoatingExpert FastestEverestClimber Smith. Supposedly people of this background in other countries are notorious for filing a large number of name change requests per capita.
In the USA, one’s legal name is any name that he customarily uses and is known by. Hence, a stage name or a pen name can become a legal name, and one can have multiple legal names. So I can go by the name John Brown IV for many years, and that would become my legal name. “Bill Smith”, for example, is obviously a legal name for William Smith, who cannot evade contractual obligations assigned to Bill Smith.
But what about my wife? Is Mrs. John Brown IV properly known as Mary Brown IV, to distinguish her from her mother in law, Mary Brown III? I’m reminded of John Y. Brown, an NFL owner who married commentator Phyllis George, who became commonly known as Phyllis Y. Brown.
There are NCAA football players with “Sr.” affixed to their name, which suggests that they are already married and have a son, Jr. Does the son actually have to be born before you can call yourself Sr., or is intent sufficient?
In Arab culture, a boy can begin calling himself “Abu Ahmed” at any age, signalling the intent to name his first son Ahmed. As soon as he is betrothed to his intended, she can begin calling herself Umm Ahmed, ‘Mother of Ahmed’.
I have not found anything in English, saying how high the numbers have gotten. Do any of the German wiki pages give a record?