Suffix (name)
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A name suffix in the Western
Post-nominal letters
This article appears to contradict the article Post-nominal letters. (March 2014) |
Academic
Academic suffixes indicate the degree earned at a
In the case of doctorates, normally either the prefix (e.g. "Dr" or "Atty") or the suffix (see examples above) is used, but not both. In the United States, the suffix is the preferred format (thus allowing differentiation between types of doctorate) in written documentation.
Degree | Type | Suffix |
---|---|---|
Bachelor's | Bachelor of Arts | A.B. or B.A. |
Bachelor of Education | B.Ed [1] | |
Bachelor of Fine Arts | B.F.A. | |
Bachelor of Science | B.S., B.Sc. , or B.E. | |
Bachelor of Technology | B.Tech. or B.T | |
Bachelor of Laws | L.L.B. or J.D.[2] | |
Master's | Master of Arts | M.A. |
Master of Business Administration | M.B.A. | |
Master of Fine Arts | M.F.A. | |
Master of Liberal Arts | M.L.A. | |
Master of Science | M.S. or M.Sc | |
Master of Social Work | M.S.W. | |
Master of Laws | M.L. or LL.M. |
Honorary
Such titles may be given by:
- a monarch (for example, KBE, a suffix granted to Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire);
- a LLD(Doctor of Laws) given in recognition of a person's life achievements rather than their academic standing);
- a church or seminary, who may offer an honorary Doctor of Divinity(DD) to outstanding ministers or teachers.
Esquire
The style
Professional
The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (July 2011) |
Professional titles include
The suffix PT is used by Physical Therapists to denote their state certification, but not to be confused with DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy) which is a qualifying degree. British physiotherapists prefer to use MCSP or SRP to denote membership to professional bodies. RN is used by qualified nurses as a suffix.
Officers and enlisted in the
Red Seal certified trades people in Canada can use the Red Seal Endorsement (RSE) acronym.
Religious orders
Members of
Ordering
In some
Generational titles
Generational suffixes are used to distinguish persons who share the same name within a family. A generational suffix can be used informally (for disambiguation purposes or as nicknames) and is often incorporated in legal documents.
United States
This section needs additional citations for verification. (November 2021) |
In the United States the most common name suffixes are senior and junior, which are abbreviated as Sr. and Jr. with initial capital letters, with or without preceding commas. In Britain these are rarer, but when they are used the abbreviations are Snr and Jnr, respectively. The use of these social terms is governed by etiquette but not enshrined in law. According to
Historically, when child mortality was high, a child could be named for its deceased sibling (a necronym),[6] with or without a suffix (such was the case of Salvador Dalí). There is at least one known case of multiple siblings having the same name in modern times—that of George Foreman's five sons, including eldest George Jr. and youngest George VI.
The suffix III is used after either Jr. or II and, like subsequent numeric suffixes, does not need to be restricted to one family line. For example, if Randall and Patrick Dudley are brothers and if Randall has a son before Patrick, he may call his son Patrick II. If Patrick now has a son, his son is Patrick Jr. (or Patrick III; alternatively, Patrick II if Randall did not have a son named Patrick II). As time passes, the III suffix goes to the son of either Patrick Jr. or Patrick II, whoever is first to have a son named Patrick. This is one way it is possible and correct for a Junior to father a IV. Another example involves President Ulysses S. Grant and his sons Frederick, Ulysses Jr., and Jesse. When Frederick's son Ulysses was born in 1881, Ulysses Jr. did not yet have a son named after himself. Therefore, Frederick's son was Ulysses III. Ulysses Jr.'s son, born afterwards in 1893, was Ulysses IV. Jesse's son Chapman was the father of Ulysses V, as neither Ulysses III nor Ulysses IV had sons named for themselves.
There is no hard-and-fast rule over what happens to suffixes when the most senior of the name dies. Etiquette expert and humorist Judith Martin, for example, believes they should all move up[7] (as Sr. and subsequent suffixes can be redistributed), but most agree that this is up to the individual families.[8]
There are instances of daughters being named after their mothers and also using the suffix Jr. (such as Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Jr., Winifred Sackville Stoner Jr., and Carolina Herrera Jr.) or after their grandmothers or aunts with the suffix II, but this is not common. Usually, the namesake is given a different middle name and so would not need a suffix for differentiation. Furthermore, once the woman marries, she would most commonly take the surname of her husband and thus do away with the generational suffix. The title Jr. is sometimes used in legal documents, particularly those pertaining to wills and estates, to distinguish among female family members of the same name.
A wife who uses the title Mrs. often would also use her husband's full name, including the suffix. In less formal situations, the suffix may be omitted: Mrs. Lon Chaney Jr. on a wedding invitation but Mrs. L. Chaney or simply Shannon Chaney for a friendly note. Widows are conventionally entitled to retain their late husband's full names and suffixes, but divorcées do not continue to style themselves with a former husband's full name and suffix even if they retain the surname.[5]
Juniors sometimes go by their first initials and "J" for Jr. regardless of middle initial. Examples include American football players Terrell Ray Ward Jr. (who goes by T. J. Ward) and Erick R. Manuel Jr., who is better known as EJ Manuel.
Former Major League Baseball player B. J. Upton, whose real name is Melvin Emanuel Upton Jr., is called B. J. due to his father's nickname being "Bossman"; B. J. stands for "Bossman Junior".[9]
Common nicknames for a junior or II include "Chip" (as in "chip off the old block"); e.g., President
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the suffixes "Snr" and "Jnr" are rare, and not usually considered part of a person's name as such. Ordinal suffixes such as "III" are generally reserved for monarchs; however, the General Register Office has stated that, whereas it would normally reject a string of symbols or letters that "has no intrinsic sense of being a name" when registering a child, a suffix such as "III" would be accepted.[11] Those who inherit a title of nobility do not use ordinal suffixes, but are distinguished from any ancestors with the same name by their position in the order of succession; for example Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington, is thus distinguished from his father, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.
Other European countries
In
In Portuguese, common designations are Júnior (junior), Filho (son), Neto (grandson), Bisneto (great-grandson), and Sobrinho (nephew).
In Dutch, "sr." and "jr." are used socially rather than legally, but the system is not extended to "III" and beyond. Instead, Piet de Vries jr. will become Piet de Vries sr. upon the death of his father if there is a grandson also named Piet to take on the junior title. Otherwise the suffix falls away.
In Swedish, the den äldre (the elder) and den yngre (the younger), abbreviated d.ä. and d.y. respectively, are sometimes used to distinguish two people with the same name, often but not necessarily, father and son.[12] An example is Gösta Ekman d.ä., actor and grandfather of actor Gösta Ekman d.y., cf. Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger which in Swedish are Plinius den äldre and Plinius den yngre.
In Irish, óg (young), sometimes anglicised as "oge", may be used to distinguish two related people who might otherwise have the same name.[13] The suffix ach is used to mean 'of or relating to' a noun or an adjective e.g. Caomhánach or Laighneach.
See also
- Post-nominal letters
- List of post-nominal letters
- List of family name affixes (surname suffixes and prefixes)
References
- ^ "Bachelor's Degree | Definition, History, Education, & Years | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 23 February 2024. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
- ^ "What is the difference between the LL.B. degree and the J.D.degree? - Ask a Librarian!". asklib.law.harvard.edu. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
- ^ "Titles – Forms of Address: Untitled Men". debretts.com. Archived from the original on 28 May 2016.
- ^ "Men's Names and Titles". Emily Post. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
- ^ a b Men's Names and Titles The Emily Post Institute, Inc. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
- ^ Przecha, Donna. "The Importance of Names and Naming Patterns". genealogy.com. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ISBN 978-0393058741
- ^ Emily Post Best Question Archive (For the week of 12 March 2007). Emily Post Institute.
- ^ "B.J. Upton explains name change from Bossman Junior to Melvin". nbcsports.com. 23 February 2015.
- ^ "James 'Chip' Carter". academyofachievement.org. 21 February 2023.
- ^ "Freedom of Information request: Restrictions on Children's Names?". What Do They Know. 1 August 2008. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
- ^ Nationalencyklopedin, d.y. (read 2021-02-27)
- ISBN 9780004707532.
Óg adj (in names): Séamas Óg; James Junior [...] óg adj. young; junior