Date:  Thu, 2 Mar 1995 07:48:52 -0700

From:  Bruce Gelder <bgelder[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CAMEL.SIM.ES.COM>

Subject: Re: "little" and "jr"



>Jacques Villeneuve, whose father, Gilles Villeneuve, was a famous driver (who

>died racing), and whose uncle, Jacques Villeneuve, was a slightly less famous

>one (who didn't die racing...yet) and still races occasionally. Yet both are

>simply known as Jacques Villeneuve--no II or anything else!

>                    jmiller

>                    franklin college (ind.)



The French equivalents of "Sr." and "Jr." are "pere" (father) and "fils" (son),

and the numbering scheme seems to be fairly rare outside of royalty. It's

not surprising to me that they're not known as "oncle" (uncle) and "neveu"

(nephew), which would be the only real options in this case.



What I find most intriguing about the Sr./Jr. and the I, II, III... systems

is that they seem to be exclusively [+male] designators. I know of no females

to whom equivalent designators have been applied--do any of you? When daughters

are named after their mothers, each of them is simply known by the name given

to them, from what I have observed. Does anyone know a historical or a social

reason for this? For males is it simply a way of keeping score? I'd be

interested.



I've also noticed that the I, II, III... system seems to be mainly a [+ upper

class] system, while the Sr./Jr. system seems to be much more widespread.

Does anyone have an explanation for that, too?



Bruce Gelder

bgelder[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]camel.sim.es.com