Prompted by an article at CMOS Shoptalk, How Strunk Lost His Comma (https://cmosshoptalk.com/2019/12/10/how-strunk-lost-his-comma/).
For decades, if not longer, the terms junior and senior and their abbreviations were set off by commas when they followed a name.
William Strunk, Jr.
Lately, that practice has fallen out of favor by both Strunk & White and Chicago. Now it's just William Strunk Jr.
Which way do you prefer?
Now, a point of etiquette. When does a junior become a senior? Upon the death of the senior? At some decorous point afterward? Never?
And what becomes of the Trey, the guy with III at the end of his name? Does he become the new junior, even though he is still the third with that name? Or does he just keep the number and go on that way until he sires a IV?
Emily Post shares the idea that generational titles remain even after the older members have died. Miss Manners believes that everyone moves up one notch.
I understand that Bill Gates' father started as a junior and ended as a senior. Or, more accurately, he began as William Henry Gates II and now goes by William Henry Gates Sr.