From: ce11son@yahoo.ca   
      
   On Sat, 22 Aug 2020 16:24:54 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"   
    wrote:   
      
   >On Sat, 22 Aug 2020 at 10:57:25, Jenny M Benson    
   >wrote:   
   >>On 22/08/2020 08:56, John Armstrong wrote:   
   >>> It happened once while I was at a Scottish boarding school in the 60s.   
   >>> Major, minor, and the youngest was "terts", short for "tertius", Latin   
   >>> for "third".   
   >>>   
   >Odd, as maior and minor don't mean first and second, but bigger and   
   >smaller (which usually mapped OK, as the older boy usually _was_   
   >bigger), and why I had a vague feeling minimus (smallest) might have   
   >been used when there was a third.   
   >>   
   >>An uncle-by-marriage of my mother's had a brother whose forenames were   
   >>John Middleton Tertius and he was known generally as Tertius.  Their   
   >>father's forenames were John Middleton as I presume their grandfather's   
   >>were also.   
   >>   
   >Was he the third after a father and grandfather, or the third to the   
   >same parents? (I have one ancestor* called Thirzen, who was the   
   >thirteenth [surviving - fourteenth altogether I think] child, and I like   
   >to think the parents were just too tired to think of another name for   
   >her.   
   >*not direct ascendant, a sibling of one [so a child of one]; is that   
   >still an ancestor?)   
   >   
   I have my great-uncle's father in law, Septimus Ryott. His elder   
   siblings all had "normal" names so it looks like they had run out of   
   choices by the time he arrived. He had a younger sister called Cenete.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)