When I married and changed my name to Rogers, I predicted life would be easier with such a simple name. No longer would I have to spell my last name. Boy, was I wrong. More times than not, people want to add an extra letter: Rodgers.

And what about those times when I refer to the whole family as the Rogerses? How awkward is that! Even my computer spell-checker questions this spelling. However, according to the National Geographic Style Manual, and many other grammar guides, it’s correct. The plural of one Rogers is two or more Rogerses, just as the plural of Jones is Joneses and Charles is Charleses.

Which now brings me to the title of this blog: Rogers’ Rules of Order. I agonized over how to present my name. Could I get away with Rogers, or should I be proper (formal?) and make it possessive. The style guide used by National Geographic magazine, and which I’m charged with maintaining, says the possessive of a proper name ending in s is formed by adding an apostrophe and another s: Rogers’s. Not great in the name of a blog. So I opted for Rogers, using my name attributively as an adjective, and forgot all about it until queried by QA.

I’ve compromised and added an apostrophe but not another s. My defense is that headlines (especially on the Web) have certain aesthetic needs that formally written text does not. Within a body of text I would certainly write Rogers's.

And on those occasions when I sign a card or a note from my whole family, I usually write “from the Rogers family” and avoid the awkward plural.

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