In english, when listing last names, do you put an apostrophe after the last names?

Question

do you put an apostrophe after last names if you are NOT showing possession?

Example:

The Bateman's, the Smith's, Phillips'

I am only listing them. The first two usually have no S, but the last one is normally spelled Phillips

Thank you

Answer 1

Never.

Is this commonly misapplied - seemlingly everywhere.

Four correct applications regarding "Smith family" examples:

The John Smith family

John Smith's family

The family Smith's dog

Each of the Smiths' cars are blue

Answer 2

The only time an apostrophe is needed is to show possession.  However, a lot of folks will say Smith's and Jones' when they are referring to the families.

Answer 3

You only use an apostrophe when you denote possession or you have a contraction like doesn't, don't etc. etc.

I see what you are talking about in your example a lot  in genealogy mailing list  and it is in error.   If you are talking about the Bateman family, it would be the Batemans.

Someone was talking about the plural of Jones and one answer said it had to be Jones'  not Joneses.  The plural of Jones can  be Joneses.   You would use Jones' when you mention Jones' home, Jones' farm, Jones' family car etc etc etc.  The plural of Phillips would be Phillips.

I understand when people are typing they often times don't go back and reread which they need to do if they change their sentence structure; so people who know better can make errors.  However, I have heard English teachers say that kids today entering high school do not know how to conjugate verbs.  We learned all that in grammar school.  They don't know the difference between a index and a table of contents.  We learned that in the 4th grade.  However, they know how to use a computer and text message.

Answer 4

You add the apostrophe only when showing possession--the Bateman's house, the Phillips' dog.

Otherwise, you have one Bateman, two Batemans; one Smith, two Smiths, etc. even if the names end in  " s" (Jones, etc., even though I have seen the word "Joneses.").

Answer 5

never and you use the apostrophe by itself after the s names to show possesion only to avoid using s twice

Answer 6

All of the above posters have correctly used the apostrophe with a last name only to show possession.  Moreover, in a series of names showing ownership, the apostrophe is only used with the last name, for example:  Bateman, Smith, and Phillips' boat [or Bob, Joe, and Dave's boat].