Suffix (name)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A name suffix, in the Western naming tradition, follows a person’s full name and provides additional information about the person. There are academic, honorary, professional, and social name suffixes.
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[edit] Academic
Academic suffixes indicate the degree earned at a college or university. These include the bachelor's degree (A.B, B.A., B.S., etc.) the master's degree (M.A., M.B.A., M.Sc., etc.), the doctoral degree (Ph.D., D.Phil., etc.) and the professional doctorates, (D.D., M.D., J.D., etc.).
In the case of doctorates, either the prefix (e.g. "Dr.") or the suffix (e.g. "M.D." or "Ph.D.") is used, not both. In the United States, the suffix is the preferred format (thus allowing differentiation between various types of doctorate) in written documentation.
[edit] Honorary
Such titles may be given by:
- A monarch (for example K.B.E., a suffix granted to Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire.)
- A university (as in a LL.D. (Doctor of Laws) given in recognition of a person's life achievements rather than their academic standing).
[edit] Professional
This includes such titles as Esq., used for an attorney (usually a practicing attorney) in the USA who has passed a state bar examination, and CSA (casting) and ASCAP, which indicate membership in professional societies. The suffix CPA is also used for individuals who have completed the requirements to become a Certified Public Accountant. Officers and enlisted in the United States Military will add an abbreviation of the service frequently to disambiguate seniority, and reserve status. For example, Captain Smith, USN, outranks Captain Jones, USMC.
Members of religious orders will commonly use their order's initials as a suffix to their personal name. For example, a Franciscan friar uses the post-nominal initials OFM, derived from the order's name in Latin, Ordo Fratrum Minorum; a Viatorian priest uses the suffix CSV, from the English name of the order, the Clerics of Saint Viator.
[edit] Social
Social name suffixes are almost exclusively applied to men.
The most common name suffixes are senior and junior, limited chiefly to American usage, which may be written with a capital first letter (Sr.) or in lower case (jr.) following the person’s name (with or without an interceding comma). The term ‘junior’ is only correctly used if a son is given exactly the same name as his father.[citation needed] (See, for example, Emily Post's Etiquette by Elizabeth L. Post 1985(?) When the suffixes are spelled out in full, they are always written with the first letter in lower case. In French, the designations are père (‘father’) and fils (‘son’).
Sons with a different middle name or initial are not called junior. An example is Ronald P. Reagan, the son of the late U.S. president, who is not titled junior because his middle name, Prescott, differs from his late father’s middle name, which was Wilson. This notwithstanding, a son may sometimes be called junior even if he is not titled as such, because "Junior" is a popular familial nickname in the United States. One instance of this is George W. Bush, who is nicknamed Junior by his family. Interestingly, the son of actor Lon Chaney, was billed by Hollywood as Lon Chaney, Jr., to capitalize on his father’s success, even though he had an entirely different birth name. A similar situation exists with singer Hank Williams. His son, Randall Hank Williams, is professionally known as Hank Williams, Jr. Randall's son Shelton Hank Williams, is known professionally as Hank Williams III.
Although there are instances in print of daughters who are named after their mothers also being titled "jr.", this is usually for effect; it is not common practice. 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 traditionally uses the same suffix as her husband in formal society, speech, and writing, or if it is her preference. Wives are also correctly addressed in less formal situations using their own first names; such references would not take any suffix. Hence: Mrs. Lon Chaney Jr, but Mrs. Shannon Chaney. Widows are entitled to retain their late husband's full names and suffixes but divorcees may not continue to style themselves with a former husband's full name and suffix, even if they retain the surname.
There is no hard-and-fast rule over what happens to suffixes when the most senior of the name dies. Do the men retain their titles, or do they all "move up" one? Neither tradition nor etiquette provides a definitive answer (columnist Judith Martin, for example, believes they should all move up, but most agree that this is up to the individual families). Upon the death of John Smith Sr., his son, John Smith Jr. may decide to style himself John Smith Sr. (causing confusion if his widowed mother and his wife both use the formal style Mrs. John Smith Sr., and necessitating that his son and grandson change their titles as well) or he may remain John Smith Jr. for the rest of his lifetime. One advantage of moving up one is that it eliminates the extension of Roman numerals over the generations: i.e., a John Smith III, IV, and V. A disadvantage is that it may cause confusion with respect to birth certificates, credit cards, and the like. In practice it is quite uncommon for families to go beyond "III" in naming children. Often the names only exist for a single generation.
A puzzling case is that of Admiral Elmo Russell Zumwalt, Jr, who did not predecease his father, Elmo Russell Zumwalt, M.D. When his father died, the son could have become Elmo Russell Zumwalt II, but apparently he did not. The son died in 2000: his tombstone reads "Zumwalt/Elmo Russell, Jr." The grandson, Elmo Russell Zumwalt III, did predecease his father, in 1988: he died of cancer attributed to Agent Orange exposure. The great grandson, Elmo Russell Zumwalt IV, was alive in 1986, at the end ofthe book My Father, My Son. Presumably he survived his father, but no Zumwalt memoir has appeared since, and The Web gets vague on Zumwalts: search engines don't use the suffixes intelligently to distinguish between the generations, often mixing them up. Even the Wikipedia article, which is the most complete source on the Web, only mentions ERZ, Jr, and ERZ III; the first and fourth ERZ were only mentioned in the last few weeks of changes, and information about them is very sketchy.
The style Esq. or Esquire was once used to distinguish a gentleman from the rank and file. It is still used as a courtesy title in formal correspondence. Although still occasionally used in the United Kingdom it is used less frequently in a social sense in the United States, where Esq. or esq. is used as the professional styling for an attorney. ‘Esq.’ in its social sense is never used for a woman.
In public schools in the United Kingdom, it has been customary to refer to children with the same last name (not necessarily from the same family) as major and minor, e.g. Smith maj. and Smith min.. Later children become tertius, etc., following the Latin scheme.
[edit] Ordering of post-nominal letters
In some countries the arrangement of post-nominals is governed by rules of precedence, and this list is sometimes called the "Order of Wear" (for the wearing of medals).
[edit] See also
- List of post-nominal letters
- List of people with a numerical suffix after their name
