The story behind an exclusive but lesser known presidential club

When Joe Biden was sworn in as the nation’s 46th president, he joined an exclusive, but lesser known, club from those who came before.

Joe Biden’s full name is Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. He is one of 10 other commanders-in-chief in history named after his parents. Others in the group include James Madison Jr., Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and Calvin Coolidge Jr.

Jeffrey Engel, founding director of the Presidential History Center at Southern Methodist University, told DBS Jacobson of CBS News that he is not surprised that presidents do not use the “junior” distinction.

“I am not surprised that presidents or any politician choose not to call themselves juniors. Why what is the word junior if not diminutive? It is saying that you are something inferior or, at most, a copy of something,” he said. “So we see presidents who have found themselves using juniors most of their lives, but when they wanted to pursue a public career on their own, frankly, they wanted their own name, not someone else’s.”

The first president to carry the junior suffix was the second to take office: John Adams Jr.

There are many members of the club in the modern era – including 38th President Gerald Ford, who has been appointed junior twice. Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr., but his parents divorced. Later, he would change his name to honor his stepfather, becoming Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr.

Ford’s successor’s name is actually James Earl Carter Jr – but he turned him into Jimmy Carter throughout his political career.

Former President Barack Hussein Obama it is also named after his father, but his parents chose to add the Roman numeral II instead of the junior suffix.

George W. Bush, son of George HW Bush, was long known by family members as “junior”, although these various middle initials keep him technically out of the junior presidential club.

“There is really no reason for George Bush 43 to refer to himself as a junior, although, of course, in natural language people would look at names and say they sounded similar,” said Engel. “Often, throughout his first part of his life, he was referred to as a junior.”