Name suffix


A name suffix in the Western English-language naming tradition, follows a person's surname and provides additional information about the person. Post-nominal letters indicate that the individual holds a position, educational degree, accreditation, office, or honor. Other examples include generational designations like "Sr." and "Jr." and "I", "II", "III", etc.

Post-nominal letters

Academic

Academic suffixes indicate the degree earned at a college or university. These include bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, professional doctorates, and academic doctorates
In the case of doctorates, normally either the prefix or the suffix is used, but not both. In the United States, the suffix is the preferred format in written documentation.
DegreeTypeSuffix
Bachelor'sBachelor of ArtsA.B. or B.A.
Bachelor of EducationB.Ed
Bachelor of Fine ArtsB.F.A.
Bachelor of ScienceB.S., B.Sc., or B.E.
Bachelor of TechnologyB.Tech. or B.T
Bachelor of LawsL.L.B. or J.D.
Master'sMaster of ArtsM.A.
Master of Business AdministrationM.B.A.
Master of Fine ArtsM.F.A.
Master of Liberal ArtsM.L.A.
Master of ScienceM.S. or M.Sc.
Master of Social WorkM.S.W.
Master of LawsM.L. or LL.M.

Honorary

Such titles may be given by:
The style Esq. or Esquire was once used to distinguish a man who was an apprentice to a knight and is used for a man of socially high ranking. In the United States, Esq. is used as a professional styling for a licensed attorney. In the United Kingdom, it is largely obsolete but occasionally used by untitled males in social and business contexts.

Professional

Professional titles include Esq., often used for an attorney in the United States who has passed a state bar examination, and CSA and ASCAP, which indicate membership in professional societies. The suffix CA is used for individuals who have completed the requirements to become a Chartered Accountant. The suffix CPA is also used for individuals who have completed the requirements to become a Certified Public Accountant. Similarly, Chartered Financial Analysts use the suffix CFA. Sommeliers who have passed the Master Sommelier exam use the MS suffix. Engineers that are certified as a Professional Engineer in his or her state will use the suffix PE, Certified Professional Geologists use PG, Certified Professional Logisticians use CPL, and Chartered Engineers use CEng. Likewise, Registered Architects sometimes use the suffix RA, or more often a suffix such as AIA or RIBA that refers to their professional society. Examination Office personnel within the United Kingdom who are registered with the Examination Officers' Association use MEOA. In the United States, professional archaeologists registered with the Register of Professional Archaeologists use the suffix RPA.
Project managers that have obtained certification as Project Management Professionals from the Project Management Institute may use the suffix PMP after their name. Similarly, individuals who hold certifications in the field of information security—e.g. CISA, CISSP, and/or CISM—may use them as suffixes.
The suffix PT is used by Physical Therapists to denote their state certification, but not to be confused with DPT 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 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.
Red Seal certified trades people in Canada can use the Red Seal Endorsement acronym.

Religious orders

Members of religious institutes commonly use their institute's initials as a suffix. For example, a Franciscan friar uses the post-nominal initials OFM, derived from the order's name in Latin, Ordo Fratrum Minorum. Equally, a Viatorian priest uses the suffix "CSV" from the name of his religious institute, Clerici Santi Viatori. These initials are not considered by members of religious institutes as an equivalent to academic or honorary post-nominial initials, but rather as a sign of membership in a particular religious lineage.

Ordering

In some English-speaking countries, the arrangement of post-nominal letters is governed by rules of precedence, and this list is sometimes called the "Order of Wear".

Generational titles

Generational suffixes are used to distinguish persons who share the same name within a family. A generational suffix can be used informally and is often incorporated in legal documents.

United States

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 The Emily Post Institute, an authority on etiquette, the term Jr. can be correctly used only if a male child's first, middle, and last names are identical to his father's names. When a male child has the same name as his grandfather, uncle or male cousin, but not his father, he can use the II suffix, which is pronounced "the second". When the suffixes are spelled out in full, they are not capitalized. Social name suffixes are far more frequently applied to men than to women. A child with a name that varies from a parent's name in middle name only may also be informally known as Jr., and his father may be known informally as Sr.. Roman numeral suffixes can be used to name a child after another family member like an uncle, cousin, or ancestor. For example, Quentin Roosevelt II was named for his late uncle, Quentin I. Similarly, a grandson of Henry Ford I was named Henry II.
Historically, when child mortality was high, a child could be named for its deceased sibling, with or without a suffix. 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.. 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, but most agree that this is up to the individual families.
There are instances of daughters being named after their mothers and also using the suffix 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.
Juniors sometimes go by their first initials and "J" for Jr. regardless of middle initial. Examples include American football players Terrell Ray Ward Jr. 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".
Common nicknames for a junior or II include "Chip" ; e.g., President James Earl Carter Jr.'s second son James Earl Carter III goes by "Chip". Another is "Bud" ; e.g., Marlon Brando Jr.'s childhood nickname was "Bud". Another alternative is "Skip"; e.g., Harry "Skip" Caray Jr. and Harry Christopher "Chip" Caray III, or "Skip" may imply that the name skips a generation. Common nicknames for a III are "Trip", "Trace", and "Trey" which denote that the name carrier is the third person to carry the name. Notable examples include Green Day drummer Tré Cool, South Park co-creator Trey Parker, and Trey Smith, elder son of actor Will Smith.