Danielle McLeod is a highly qualified secondary English Language Arts Instructor who brings a diverse educational background to her classroom. With degrees in science, English, and literacy, she has worked to create cross-curricular materials to bridge learning gaps and help students focus on effective writing and speech techniques. Currently working as a dual credit technical writing instructor at a Career and Technical Education Center, her curriculum development surrounds student focus on effective communication for future career choices.
Every year I receive Christmas cards, and like clockwork, at least one of them uses an apostrophe -s to donate a plural last name.
Although this may seem cringe-worthy to a grammarian, the confusion is understandable. Making a last name plural or possessive can be a little tricky, but if you can remember a few simple rules, you’ll avoid the common mistakes that so many people make.
Review our guide below, learn how to create plurals and possessives of last names, and never make a Holiday Greeting gaffe again.
Proper nouns provide a specific name for a person, place, or thing. Unlike common nouns, they are always capitalized.
A person’s last name, or surname, is a proper noun since it defines a specific person.
To make something plural means to make it represent more than one. In this case, it represents more than one person with the same last name or multiple members of the same family.
A few simple rules help you remember how to make a last name plural.
The first rule to remember about creating a plural last name is “never use an apostrophe -s.” An apostrophe -s shows ownership of something, not multiples of something.
If the name ends in a consonant, create a plural using the addition of -s at the end of the name.
Let’s use these in a sentence to indicate the use of more than one family member:
If the name already ends in an -s, simply add an -es to create a plural form of the name.
If you understandably find words like Edwardses a little too awkward, consider rewording to avoid the plural. For instance, the Edwardses can become the Edwards family or the Edwards household. Let’s take a look at how we can use these in a sentence:
If the name ends in a vowel, create a plural using the addition of -s at the end of the name.
Let’s use these in a sentence to indicate the use of more than one family member:
There is one important way in which plural last names differ from other plurals: the last syllable of names ending in y does not become -ies when made plural. The members of the Kennedy and the Clancy families are the Kennedys and the Clancys, not the Kennedies and the Clancies.
A possessive proper noun shows the specific ownership of something. To make a last name possessive, simply add an apostrophe -s to the end.
Last names that already end in an -s allow you to choose how you show possession.
You can add an apostrophe -s after the name.
Or, you can choose to add an apostrophe after the -s to make it possessive.
Plural possession indicates multiple people own something. Creating plural possessions out of last names is as simple as following the steps above and applying them to the last name.
First, make the name plural:
Second, apply possession using an apostrophe at the end of the name:
Now, let’s use these in a sentence:
These sentences show that the objects of the sentence belong to more than one member of the same family.
There are a few more rules you can apply to plural possession concerning the use of more than one last name.
When explaining that more than one person owns the same object, only the last noun in the list requires the plural possessive form.
If two or more plural names have different ownership, each name requires the plural possessive form.
