Plurals of Names Ending in “S”
Summary
Form the plural of a name ending in s by adding es without an apostrophe. Don’t add ses or an apostrophe and s.
- Correct: The Harrises live next door to the Joneses.
Incorrect: The Harrisses live next door to the Jonesses.
Incorrect: The Harris’s live next door to the Jones’s.
Plurals of both given and last names ending in s are formed by simply adding es.
- We have two Jameses, three Chrises, four Rosses, and five Gladyses in class this year.
- They used to live next door to the Williamses.
To form the possessive of a plural name, place an apostrophe after the final s.
- The Robertses’ family home is in California.
The general rule
Form the plural of a name or proper noun by adding s or es.
- We have seven Jacks, nine Jills, and two Gladyses in the family.
- Have the Harrises been informed?
- The Smiths are here for dinner.
- Do the Joneses still live next door to the Singhs?
In this article, we discuss how to form plurals of names ending in s and other sibilant sounds, along with some exceptions.
Plurals of names ending in s
To form the plural of a name ending in s, add es without an apostrophe. This rule applies to both given and last names. It also applies regardless of whether a name ends in a single or double s.
- We have four Chrises, three Rosses, three Agneses, and two Tesses in the family.
not Chrisses or Agnesses
- They met the Harrises on a flight to London.
not Harrisses
- Gladys has joined a group of Gladyses who raise money for charity.
- Did you watch that documentary on the Williamses?
- We have two Jameses and three Jesses in class this year.
- The Dickenses are old friends of ours.
- The Collinses have always lived next door to the Joneses.
- Both Lucases have reached the semifinals.
- The Addamses were my favorite fictional family.
Don’t add ses. Add just es, regardless of whether the s at the end of the name is preceded by a vowel or a consonant.
- Both Jonases have the same surname: Smith.
- There are two Agneses in this office: which one did you speak with?
- The Robertses, Torreses, Phillipses, Davises, Gonzaleses, Adamses, Floreses, and Evanses have all moved to the city.
Use of apostrophe
Don’t use an apostrophe to form the plural of a name ending in s.
- Incorrect: There are two Nicholas’s and three Charles’s in my phonebook.
Correct: There are two Nicholases and three Charleses in my phonebook. - Incorrect: I heard that the Myers’s now live in New York.
Correct: I heard that the Myerses now live in New York. - Incorrect: Are there two Lucas’s in your class?
Correct: Are there two Lucases in your class? - Incorrect: We have invited the Ramos’s and Hughes’s to dinner.
Correct: We have invited the Ramoses and Hugheses to dinner.
Using an apostrophe to form the plural of a name is considered poor style and generally avoided, even with names ending in other letters like y, i, or a.
- Poor: The Murphy’s still own the bookstore beside the library.
Better: The Murphys still own the bookstore beside the library.
Never use an apostrophe to form the plural of a name ending in s.
- Incorrect: The Harris’s are here.
Correct: The Harrises are here.
Plurals of names ending in z, x, sh, ch
Form the plurals of names ending in sibilant sounds like z, x, and sh by adding es, just like you would of names ending in s.
- We have two Maxes and three Foxes in the family.
- The Coxes and the Alvarezes have known each other for years.
- The Diazes and the Knoxes live next door to each other.
- The Shwarzes are old friends of ours.
If a name ending in ch is pronounced with a soft “ch” sound (e.g., March, Lurch, Mitch), add es to form the plural. But if the name ends in a hard “ch” sound (a /k/ sound, as in Bach, pronounced /baak/), add s, not es.
- The Marches were her favorite family growing up.
- We now have three Mitches in the family.
- The Bachs and the Kochs are known for their generosity.
- We also have three Friedrichs in the family.
Plurals of names ending in a silent s
To form the plural of a name ending in a silent s, add es, as you would with any name ending in s.
The Camuses had a family legend that they were from Alsace.
—Olivier Todd, Albert Camus, A Life (1996)One can and should admire even the most useless efforts of all those lofty geniuses: the Descarteses, Malebranches, Leibnizes, Wolffs, etc.
— Julien Offroy De La Mettrie (Richard Watson and Maya Rybalka, Trans.), Man a Machine and Man a Plant (1994, original work published 1747–8)But there was something still more appalling in the whisperings between Henri and the Dumases.
— “The Family of Perrault,” The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia (Vol. XIV, May–August, 1834)
Plurals of other proper nouns ending in s
To form the plural of other proper nouns ending in s, such as names of regions, countries, brands, or businesses, add es, as seen in the following examples from published content. Again, don’t add ses; just add es. Don’t use an apostrophe.
It’s competing against the General Motorses and the General Electrics of the world.
— “Red Ink,” PBS (transcript, Feb. 19, 2004)Conflicts of interest . . . are everyday occurrences for the Morgan Stanleys and Goldman Sachses of the world.
— “Can There Be Investment Banks Without Conflicts?” Harvard Business Review (Feb. 5, 2010)They prefer to call themselves ‘financial services companies,’ just like the American Expresses and the Merrill Lynches.
— “A Bank, by Any Other Name . . .,” New York Times (Dec. 27, 1981)
Possessives of plural names
To form the possessive of a plural name, place an apostrophe after—not before—the s that forms the plural.
- Is that the Williamses’ cat?
not “the Williams’s cat”
- The Dickenses’ dog is in the dahlias.
- I see the Lopezes’ car parked in their driveway.
Possessives of all plural names are formed by adding an apostrophe after the final s: the Murphys’ dog, the Smiths’ cat, the Berkowiczes’ car.
Examples from published content
Here are some examples from writing that show how the plural of a name ending in s is formed by adding es, without an apostrophe.
Literature has moved considerably from the Brontës and Dickenses.
— “Prose and Poetry, Family Style,” New York Times (May 24, 1964)Wales has seven MPs called Davies, three Joneses and three Williamses.
— “Results, Powers and Keeping Up with the Joneses,” BBC News (May 11, 2015)The Amises’ home was a house called Lemmons.
— “Great Dynasties of the World: The Day-Lewises,” Guardian (Apr. 3, 2010)He has bad feelings about leaving the Harrises and all his friends.
— Bill Barich, “Hard to Be Good,” New Yorker (Dec. 20, 1982)This is the story of one Monday-night screening and two Jameses.
— “Public Lives,” New York Times (Oct. 18, 2000)
Plurals of names ending in other letters
Plurals of names that don’t end in s or another sibilant sound (like z, x, sh, and ch) are formed by adding s instead of es. These include those ending in vowels (like e and i) and in the letter y.
- We have three Marks, two Marys, two Janes, and two Annies in the family.
- The Dunphys live next door to the Patels.
- The Khans and the Murrays are on vacation in Thailand.
- Both Johns are good at tennis; which one do you mean?
Usage guide
Add es to form the plural of a name ending in s, whether a given or a last name (two Jameses in the family, the Williamses). Add just es, not ses, to form the plural (the Harrises, not the Harrisses). Also don’t use an apostrophe before the s (the Williamses, not the Williams’s). Finally, remember to form the possessive of a plural name by placing an apostrophe after the final s (the Harrises’ dog, not the Harris’s dog).