My brother was a 3rd but it was never a problem. The second was our uncle who lived on the other side of the country and the first was our great-grandfather.
The name problems came with my father and I. Same first and last names. Same middle initial but not the same name. And we used the same nickname. Lots of confusion at times, some funny and some not.
In PA there is a section for an optional "other" name element. I think it says "Other/Suffix; Jr, Sr, etc." It might be helpful if you're named Simon Hortense Geronimo as a way to delineate yourself from your father of the same name, but I don't think it would really help if you were named John James Smith. I mean, how many John James Smith Jrs are there in the world?
But what others have said is correct. Traditionally the jr or III applies only if the middle names are the same and its one generation removed. For instance, I'm named after my great grandfather Curtis Otis Mittong, but since I'm Curtis Alan Mittong (different middle name and separated by two generations) I'm not a Jr or II.
But I've never been a supporter of antiquated, socially-accepted traditional things. Call yourself Caitlin if it makes you happy.
Thinking about it. My grandson might have a bit of an issue later in life. He has 2 middle names. My son-in-law didn't like the fact that I don't have anyone named after me. My son was born with the same initials as me but his mother and I split when he was young and kept me away from him until he reached 20 then he contacted me. We are close now but his mother changed his name to her maiden name. My grandson from my oldest daughter is my full name and his dads last name. So 2 middle names. Initials of WLKR. We call him by his first middle name & my middle name of Lee.
johnnie wrote: A word of advice to those who name their children this way: give your kid a nickname or something to distinguish him from his father. My uncle, who was named after my grandfather, was known by all as "Bud," most people didn't know his actual first name. My parents never called me anything but my first name, which was the same as my father's. It led to some confusion when we received mail under the same roof and consternation when I was a surly teenager.
When my grandfather was still alive and we had family gatherings, my grandfather was Nick (Or Dad, if it was my father and his sisters), my father was Jamie (our middle name is James) and I was Nicholas.
When travelling, a difference in names on the airlines ticket and the passport may result in check in issues. I just recently flew to Toronto for a business trip and my passport has Jr on it but my ticket had no jr. Went to check in at one of the kiosks and it didn't like that the names were different so i had to go see a gate agent. Wasn't a big deal, just had to wait in another line. Let the person know they may need to set aside a little more time to get through the bs. It was interesting that only the airline cared about the name inconsistency, TSA and customs didn't say a thing.
imgon wrote: When travelling, a difference in names on the airlines ticket and the passport may result in check in issues. I just recently flew to Toronto for a business trip and my passport has Jr on it but my ticket had no jr. Went to check in at one of the kiosks and it didn't like that the names were different so i had to go see a gate agent. Wasn't a big deal, just had to wait in another line. Let the person know they may need to set aside a little more time to get through the bs. It was interesting that only the airline cared about the name inconsistency, TSA and customs didn't say a thing.
I'm planning on letting them know when we send the itinerary. I imagine they're kind of used to dealing with it...
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