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Grammar girl here, I'm Benoan Fogarty, and you can think of me as your friendly guide to the English language.

Writing, history, rules, and cool stuff.

Today, we'll talk about how to make family names like Jones and Belman plural,

and we'll look at why we sometimes ask how come instead of why.

But first, I want to remind you about my better writing video course at LinkedIn Learning.

It's 17 short videos on basic writing topics like active voice, commas, and bulleted lists.

The feedback has been great, and there's a good chance you'll be able to get it free

through your university or county library, your corporate LinkedIn account, or if you're a US veteran.

So check it out. That's Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for better writing at LinkedIn Learning and Linda.com.

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Spending time with family is a big part of the holidays.

And thinking about family reminded me of a few tricky little quirks of family names and family words that can confuse people.

So today, I'll tell you how to make family names plural, even those that end in X, Y, and Z.

How to refer to more than one brother or sister-in-law, and how to formally address more than one man and more than one woman.

First, let's figure out how to make family names plural. Family names are like brand names.

You don't change the base spelling. For example, you make blackberry the fruit plural by changing the Y to IES, B-E-R-R-I-E-S.

But you make blackberry the phone, plural, by simply adding an S to the end, B-E-R-R-Y-S.

And it's the same with names. Kennedy becomes the Kennedys, and Disney becomes the Disney's, both with just a Y-S at the end.

A newsletter subscriber named Julie asked if she should make the last name Belman, plural by making it Bel-Men, and the answer is no.

Something like Belman becomes the Belmans. It's a name, so you still just add S to the end.

Some names, however, need an E-S to become plural. Names that end in S, X, Z, CH, and SH, for example.

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