From: acornish@imm.cnrs.fr
On 2020-08-16 13:49:16 +0000, J. P. Gilliver (John) said:
> On Sat, 15 Aug 2020 at 15:32:15, Ian Goddard wrote:
>> On 15/08/2020 11:15, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
>>> in Britain suffixes like Jr. are far less common than in the USA
>>
>> It depends where you're looking. I've come across them, especially in
>> manorial records. What's not necessarily clear is whether you're
>> looking at a parental relationship, a wider family relationship such as
>> cousins, two people of more remote, if any, kinship who just happen to
>> have the same name or, in really pathological situations, siblings. I
>> started off assuming the first but now I'm more wary.
>
> Yes, I've occasionally found it, but often in contexts where, as you
> say, it's just that two people in the area have the same name (though
> of course that often _is_ father and son); also, it's rarely clear
> whether the person adding the suffix is even a member of the family, or
> just someone adding it - possibly using it as the Latin comparative
> ("[the] older" or "[the] younger") only.
>
> Though less common than it once was, I get the impression that the USA
> custom _is_ normally family-applied - even to the extent that the son
> is sometimes referred to (and addressed) as Junior rather than his
> actual name. (Seems to be only sons - I've not come across it for
> daughters, though I daresay it occurs.) I've not encountered it, except
> in families with US connections, in Britain - though I guess it
> probably does occur.
One well known example in the UK (well known if you know some organic
chemistry, anyway) is that of William Henry Perkin senior and William
Henry Perkin junior -- father and son, both very distinguished. I think
the usual abbreviations are sen. and jun., not Sr. and Jr., but now
that we're so much influenced by what the Americans do that's probably
changing (or changed).
--
athel
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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