Does junior have to have the same middle name as senior?

Question

Does junior have to have the same middle name as senior?

Answer 1

I'm pretty sure, yes

Answer 2

No. There are some people who think everything has to be identical, but the law disagrees. You can add the Jr and Dad can use the Sr. as long as they have the same first name.

Answer 3

Yes, typically for there to be a junior, he has to have the EXACT same name as senior.  Wikipedia says that The term ‘junior’ is only correctly used if a child is given exactly the same name as his or her parent.

Sons with a different middle name or initial may also be called Junior. An example is Ronald P. Reagan, the son of the late U.S. president, who is still titled junior even though his middle name, Prescott, differs from his late father’s middle name, which was Wilson. Also, look at former president George Herbert Walker Bush.   His son George Walker Bush has almost the same name, but is NOT legally George Bush, Jr.  Even though some people refer to them as Bush Sr. and Bush Jr., they technically are not.

Answer 4

No, I know someone who has a different middle name than his father and his father than his grandfather, and they are jr, and III.

Answer 5

These days, most people say yes; a son's the full name should be identical to his father's in order for him to be "officially" a Junior, III, IV, etc.  But some families don't care about about that rule.  We call my son "the fourth", even though he, his father, grandfather and great-grandfather all have different middle names (the name of their mother's father). That's just the tradition in our family.

And if you're doing genealogical research, don't automatically assume that a "junior" had the same name as his father.  My ancestor was always known as William Glenn, Junior, even though his father's name was John Glenn!  The Junior was used to distinguish him from his uncle William Glenn, who was always listed as Senior.