# Longest line of father-son mother-daughter with the same name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 25, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578 "2012-01-25T05:28:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578/21 "2012-01-27T05:16:34Z")
Mother-daughter? I’ve seen a few rare cases of the kid given mom’s middle name, but naming a female child directly after their mother seems extremely rare. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578/22 "2012-01-27T06:41:14Z")
All of the kings of the [Ptolemaic dynasty](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemaic_dynasty), that ruled Egypt from 305–30 BC had the given name Ptolemy, and most of the queens (both consorts and sovereigns in their own right) were called Cleopatra. The famous Cleopatra (the one with the asp), the last ruler of the dynasty, was actually Cleopatra VII, and for part of her reign she reigned jointly with her brother/husband (yes, the Ptolemy’s were very kinky) Ptolemy XIII. It makes the history of the period very confusing, especially as they did not actually number themselves (that is just something later historians have done to try to keep track of things). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578/23 "2012-01-27T06:41:41Z")
> [@lel](#): > > Mother-daughter? I’ve seen a few rare cases of the kid given mom’s middle name, but naming a female child directly after their mother seems extremely rare. It could happen in Portugal, where people get “firstname, maternal lastname, paternal lastname”. The paternal lastname would change, but it would be a similar situation to those Jesuses Cristo [second-lastname] I mentioned before, you could get an uninterrupted string of Amalias Rodrigues [insert second lastname here]. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578/24 "2012-01-27T07:31:23Z")
> [@lel](#): > > Mother-daughter? I’ve seen a few rare cases of the kid given mom’s middle name, but naming a female child directly after their mother seems extremely rare. Not as rare as you might think. My mother is an Edna, and so was her mother. In turn her father was an Edward. I know a woman who is a third generation Bernie. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578/25 "2012-01-27T07:42:28Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > Traditional, oh-so-correct usage in the English-speaking world requires that when the oldest in a series dies, everyone else with that name moves up a spot in the rotation . . . In the U.S. at least, this quaint solution is now a custom more honour’d in the breach than the observance. In my observation, this business of adding Sr, Jr, III, IV and so forth to family names is, and always has been, exclusive to the US (and possibly Canada?). Post-nominal letters in the rest of the English-speaking world are used only for monarchs. (And, in that context, they don’t indicate descent. Elizabeth II is not a descendant of the previous Queen Elizabeth; she’s just the second queen to use the regnal name “Elizabeth”.) In the UK (and, so far as I know, the rest of the English-speaking world outside the US and possibly Canada) if a father called, say, Henry Jones has a son called Henry Jones then some other way has to be found to distinguish the son. Most commonly, he’ll use a variant of the name, like Harry, or he will use a nickname, or be ordinarily known by his middle name - i.e., if christened Henry John Jones, he will be known socially as John Jones. And note that this problem arises whether or not he has the same middle name as his father. Middle names/middle initials are not commonly used, so Henry John Jones would usually be known as Henry Jones, and his son Henry Peter Jones is going to have to find some way to avoid being confused with his father. ---
**Author:** ![jerry8trax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@jerry8trax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerry8trax)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578/26 "2012-09-26T00:00:59Z")
the only first-hand I have is my my great gfather naming a son jr. but the son died after one day so when they had another son they didn’t know whether it was jr. or II. oh well… ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578/27 "2012-09-26T07:10:03Z")
By coincidence, a line with seven consecutive Barbaras [was posted at a genealogical message board](http://groups.google.com/group/soc.genealogy.medieval/msg/74d1d1f3a2b85531) recently. Can anyone improve on that for same-named mother-daughter chain? The purpose of that post wasn’t the consecutive Barbaras but just, I think, the long purely female chain from the 14th century to the present. There are pure-male (father-son) chains extending to the present and back to the 11th or 10th century, or even 9th century (to Rurik of Novgorad), 4th century (to Niall Naoighiallach),or BC (to Confucius), but all-female lines are harder to come by. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578/28 "2012-09-26T07:31:18Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Even giving your son just the same first name is pretty uncommon unless you’re a peer of the realm. It used to be pretty much standard practice, though, as period literature shows: Sir Thomas Bertram’s eldest son is Thomas in _Mansfield Park_, the eponymous Nicholas Nickleby’s father’s first name was also Nicholas, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578/29 "2012-09-26T08:03:50Z")
BTW, among Scots it is common to name a first son after his paternal grandfather. This often leads to alternating chains. For example, the 7th Earl of Argyll was Archibald Campbell, son of Colin(\*), son of Archibald, son of Colin, son of Archibald, son of Colin, son of Archibald, _grand_son of Colin, son of Archibald, son of Colin, grandson of Colin. (\* - this Colin had an older brother Archibald, but that Archibald may not be an exception: he had a (possibly older) bastard half-brother named … Colin!) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578/30 "2012-09-26T20:12:26Z")
William Howard Taft’s middle name is from the Howard family that settled in colonial Massachusetts. The Howard middle name has survived to this day, my brother and his son both carrying it. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578/31 "2012-09-26T22:14:05Z")
My great-grandfather’s name has gone down my cousin’s line. My great-uncle was Jr., my first cousin once removed (whom we call Uncle Bill, although that is technically not correct) is III, my second cousin (Uncle Bill’s son) is IV, his son is V, and his son will be VI. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578/32 "2012-09-27T01:14:31Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > … So, suppose there’s a Thomas Rott, Sr; a Thomas Rott, Jr.; a Thomas Rott III; and a Thomas Rott IV, all living a life of ease, comfort and correctness. It’s interesting that in America the possession of a generation number (what’s the gerund for this process, anyway?) is associated with class. I learned that first in _Gilligan’s Island_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-line-of-father-son-mother-daughter-with-the-same-name/610578.md?page=1)