Relationship Terms Revised 25 June 2019 Copyright © 1996–2020 by Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems

Summary: The English language has quite an array of relationship or kinship terms, which can baffle even native English speakers. What’s the difference between a second cousin and first cousin once removed, or stepsister and half sister, let alone ortho-cousin and cross-cousin? This page demystifies some common and uncommon terms, with diagrams.

Introduction

Different languages have different terms for relationships, and even distinguish different relationships. For instance, Swedish calls your mother’s brother “morbror” and your father’s brother “farbror”, where Danish has “onkel” for both, and English has “uncle”. (In Latin they were “avunculus” and “patruus”.)

On the other hand, English makes some distinctions that other languages do not. Your daughter-in-law and your stepdaughter are both your “belle-fille” in French. And according to the Encyclopædia Britannica , Polynesian languages use the same words for male and female cousins as for brothers and sisters.

Even native English speakers can be confused by some of our relationship terms. A friend asked me to help him figure out what relation he was to his mother’s aunt’s great-grandson. After we had worked that out (see Example 2), he suggested others might be interested. What follows is an expanded and more general form of our discussion.

In English, three sets of terms seem to cause the most difficulty: cousin, in-law, and “half” or “step” relations. Just to make things messy, each of these terms can correctly be used for several different relationships.

Vocabulary: In discussing relationships, phrases like “brother or sister” and “son or daughter” come up again and again. Here are standard gender-neutral terms that I’ll use to shorten the following discussion:

sibling = brother or sister (Some dictionaries call two individuals siblings if they have one or both parents in common. This would include the relationships of half brother and half sister as well as full brother and sister. In this document, I’ll use the word “sibling” in its more restricted meaning: an individual who has the same two parents as you.)

= or (Some dictionaries call two individuals siblings if they have one or both parents in common. This would include the relationships of half brother and half sister as well as full brother and sister. In this document, I’ll use the word “sibling” in its more restricted meaning: an individual who has the same two parents as you.) spouse = husband or wife

= or child = son or daughter (even if an adult)

= or (even if an adult) parent = mother or father

The Basics

Before getting into “third cousin once removed”, it’s good to understand the common terms. Please have a look at the following table.

H = W | ----------------------- | | B0(M)=Z0(F) C0(F) | | B1 C1 | | B2 C2 | | etc. etc.

H and W (a husband and wife) are the common ancestors of this family. B0 and C0 are the son and daughter (children) of H and W, and H and W are the father and mother (parents) of B0 and C0. B1 and C1 are the grandchildren (grandsons and gradddaughters) of H and W, and H and W are therefore the grandparents (grandfather and grandmother) of B1 and C1.

Aunt, Uncle, Niece, Nephew

There are standard words for collateral relationships, where neither person is directly descended from the other. B0 and C0 are brother and sister, or more generically siblings. Going down one generation, on one side only, we have four common relationships:

B0 is C1‘s uncle . Most English speakers use “uncle” for any of four relationships: father’s brother, mother’s brother, father’s sister’s husband, or mother’s sister’s husband.

. Most English speakers use “uncle” for any of four relationships: father’s brother, mother’s brother, father’s sister’s husband, or mother’s sister’s husband. C0 is B1‘s aunt . Again, “aunt” in English could mean your father’s sister, mother’s sister, father’s brother’s wife, or mother’s brother’s wife. Most people would say Z0 is also C1‘s aunt.

. Again, “aunt” in English could mean your father’s sister, mother’s sister, father’s brother’s wife, or mother’s brother’s wife. Most people would say Z0 is also C1‘s aunt. C1 is the niece or nephew of B0; most people would say C1 is also the niece or nephew of Z0.

Children of your aunt or uncle are your first cousins. More generally, B1 and C1, and all their descendants, are cousins to each other. A separate section below details all the words used to describe cousin relationships.

Godparents

Many children have godparents chosen for them by their parents, for example in Christian denominations at the time of baptism. While the godparents are not necessarily relatives, in some families they stand in the position of relatives to the child, and may even be addressed as “aunt” and “uncle”.

The godparents, in turn, may speak of their godson or goddaughter, and collectively godsons and goddaughters would be godchildren.

Honorary Aunts and Uncles

In some sections of the country, it is common for children to call their parents’ friends “Aunt Flo” and “Uncle Ed”. Perhaps because I grew up with this, it has always seemed charming to me: more respectful than first-naming them, much warmer than “Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks”.

Terms Involving “Great”

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth Edition, 2006) gives sixteen definitions of the adjective “great”. The one that concerns us here is

great adj. 15. Being one generation removed from the relative specified. Often used in combination: a great-granddaughter.

Apply this definition to B2 and C2. They are one generation below B1 and C1, who are H and W’s grandchildren. Therefore B2 and C2 are H and W’s great-grandchildren. Of course, a male would be a great-grandson, and a female would be a great-granddaughter.

H and W in turn are the great-grandparents (great-grandfather and great-grandmother) of B2 and C2. If we drew the family tree another generation down, B3 and C3 would be the great-great-grandchildren of H and W, and so on.

The collateral relationships can be “grand” or “great”, too. Since B0 and Z0 are the uncle and aunt of C1, they are the granduncle and grandaunt of C1’s child C2. Going in the other direction, since C2 is the child of C1, who is the niece or nephew of B0 and Z0, C2 is the grandniece or grandnephew of B0 and Z0.

Unfortunately, there isn’t general agreement on the terminology. C2 is sometimes called great-niece or great-nephew, though less often than “grand”, and B0/Z0 are called great-uncle and great-aunt more often than “grand”. This picture from Wikipedia’s article Cousin splits the difference, using only grand-niece and great-aunt. However, the relationship chart in the same article uses only grandniece but lists “grandaunt or great aunt” as alternatives.

My recommendation: for people in the same generation as your grandparents, use “grandaunt” and “granduncle”; for the grandchildren of your brother or sister, use “grandnece” and “grandnephew”. Reserve “great” for people three genrations from you.

There are no grandcousins or great-cousins. Instead, the terminology is cousins so many times removed, as explained below.

Terms Involving “In-law”

There are several of these, but most give little difficulty to native speakers. Any relationship term ending with -in-law indicates that the relationship is by marriage and not by blood; in other words, one of us is a blood relative of the other’s spouse.

If I want to refer collectively to the blood relatives of my spouse, I can call them “my in-laws". Sometimes this term means just my spouse’s parents; other times it can mean any group of my spouse’s relatives.

In-law relationship terms are always written with hyphens, by the way. And the plural is formed on the part before the “-in-law”; for example, “brothers-in-law” and not “brother-in-laws”. The only exception is the general term “in-laws”, which is always plural.

Father-, Mother-, Son-, and Daughter-in-Law

My father-in-law is the father of my spouse; my mother-in-law is the mother of my spouse. If my own parents get divorced and remarry, their new spouses are my stepparents, not my mother-in-law and father-in-law.

The husband of my daughter is my son-in-law; the wife of my son is my daughter-in-law. If my spouse has children from a previous marriage, those are my stepchildren, not sons-in-law or daughters-in-law. I am their stepfather or stepmother, not their father-in-law or mother-in-law.

In these days of more fluid relationships, it is becoming more common to say “daughter-in-law” of the woman my son or daughter has lived with for a long time. On the one hand, that’s a nice way of recognizing long-term relationships that don’t involve a traditional marriage. On the other hand, it’s a bit confusing to use the term “in-LAW” for relationships that are not recognized by law.

Brother-in-Law, Sister-in-Law

These are the only really tricky in-law terms. “Brother-in-law” and “sister-in-law” each have two or three meanings. All authorities agree on the first two meanings, but there is some controversy about the third (and I personally don’t care for it).

My sister-in-law could be:

the sister of my spouse, or the wife of my brother, or the wife of my spouse’s brother. (This meaning is accepted by AHD4, but not by all authorities.)

Similarly, my brother-in-law could be

the brother of my spouse, or the husband of my sister, or the husband of my spouse’s sister. (This meaning is accepted by AHD4, but not by all authorities.)

Consider the following example: Al marries Betty; Betty has a sister Bonnie, who marries Calvin.

Harry = Sally | + -------------------- | | Al = Betty Bonnie = Calvin

The siblings-in-law:

Al is Bonnie’s brother-in-law (definition 2), and Bonnie is Al’s sister-in-law (definition 1);

Betty is Calvin’s sister-in-law (definition 1), and Calvin is Betty’s brother-in-law (definition 2).

So much is agreed. The question is, are Al and Calvin brothers-in-law (definition 3)? Someone once wrote to Ann Landers, the advice columnist, describing this situation. Ann replied: “You are no relation; you are just two men who married sisters.” Though I agree with Ann on this one, I admit that it’s awkward for Al to refer to Calvin as “my wife’s brother-in-law” or “my sister-in-law’s husband”. Probably that’s why Al might refer to Calvin as “my brother-in-law”.

Terms Involving “Cousin”

Children of the same two parents are siblings, brothers and sisters. (If they have only one parent in common the relationship needs the modifier “half”; see below). Other relatives who are descended from a common ancestor are generally called cousins. This section explains more specific terms for various degrees of the cousin relationship.

Please refer to this family tree for the following discussion.

H = W | ----------------------- | | B0.......siblings......C0 | | B1....first cousins....C1 | | B2...second cousins....C2 | | B3....third cousins....C3 | | B4...fourth cousins....C4 | | etc. etc.

H and W are the common ancestors (husband and wife); B0 and C0 are their children, B1 and C1 are their grandchildren, B2 and C2 are their great-grandchildren, and so on.

First Cousins, Second Cousins, and So On

B1 and C1 are called first cousins. Because their parents (B0 and C0) were siblings, they are the first generation below siblings. Another way to look at it is that B1 and C1 each have two pairs of grandparents, of which they share one pair (H and W). (First cousins are sometimes called cousins german, or simply “cousins”.)

Next consider B2 and C2. Their respective parents, B1 and C1, are first cousins. B2 and C2 are therefore second cousins: they are the second generation below the level of siblings. Each number in front of the word “cousin” corresponds to going another generation down both sides of the family tree.

These cousinly relations all assume that the generations trace back to (full) siblings (B0 and C0 in the diagram), who had both parents (H and W) in common. If B0 and C0 had only one parent in common, they are half siblings, and all the cousinly relations below them would be preceded with the word “half”, according to William Addams Reitwiesner’s article “First Cousin Second Cousin” in alt.talk.royalty on 24 June 2000, archived here. Though the terms exist, they are not used very often in ordinary conversation about one’s own family.

Types of First Cousins

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First cousins can be classified two ways: patrilateral or matrilateral, and cross- or ortho-cousins. While ortho-cousins (also called parallel cousins) are children of two brothers or two sisters; cross-cousins are children of a sister and brother. Someone is your patrilateral cousin if you are first cousins through your father (and your father’s brother or sister); someone is your matrilateral cousin if you are first cousins through your mother (and your mother’s brother or sister).

Note that these terms depend on the sexes of the parents, not of the cousins. A table and some examples should make the terms clear:

Zebulon = Yetta William = Virginia | | ------------------------------- ----------- | | | | | Abe = Beth Cassie = Doug Ed = Felicia Georgina = Hank | | | | Jill John Jack James

Jack’s first cousins can be categorized as follows:

Jill is Jack’s patrilateral ortho-cousin (related through Jack’s father Ed and Ed’s brother Abe). Jack is also Jill’s patrilateral ortho-cousin because the relationship goes from Jill, through her father Abe, through his brother Ed, to Jack.

John is Jack’s patrilateral cross-cousin (related through Jack’s father Ed and Ed’s sister Cassie). But Jack is John’s matrilateral cross-cousin because the relationship is through John’s mother and then through her brother.

James is Jack’s matrilateral ortho-cousin (related through Jack’s mother Felicia and Felicia’s sister Georgina). Jack is also James’s matrilateral ortho-cousin.

(This section was adapted from “Cousin Marriage” in the 1967 Encyclopædia Britannica. )

Double Cousins

What if two people are first cousins both ways, through both mothers and both fathers? Then we can call them double first cousins or simply double cousins. If two brothers marry two sisters, or if a sister and brother marry a brother and sister, the children of the two marriages will be first cousins two ways, or double first cousins.

Here’s the first case: Lucy and Ethel are sisters, and Fred and Ricky are brothers. Jack and Jill are double first cousins. Since they are children of brothers and children of sisters, they are double first ortho cousins.

|-------------------| -------+-------------------+------- | | | | Lucy = Ricky Fred = Ethel | | Jack Jill

Now suppose that Lucy and Fred are sister and brother, and Ricky and Ethel are brother and sister. Since they’re related through opposite-sex parents, Jack and Jill are now cross cousins, and since they’re related through two brother-sister pairs, they are double cross first cousins.

|--------------------------| | --------------------+------- | | | | Lucy = Ricky Fred = Ethel | | Jack Jill

Is there a difference between “first cross cousin” and “cross first cousin”? No, they mean exactly the same thing. However, “cross first cousin” is used 30 times as frequently as “first cross cousin”, according to a Google search on 25 June 2019.

Just in passing, I’ll mention that there can be double second cousins and so forth.

“Removed” Cousins

Now consider B1 and C2. What relation are they? C2 is the child of C1, and C1 and B1 are first cousins. Therefore B1 and C2 are called first cousins once removed, the most common example of a relationship designated removed.. The “once removed” means that one of the two relatives is one generation removed from being a first cousin with the other. Continuing, C3 is the grandchild of C1, who is B1‘s first cousin, so B1 and C3 are first cousins twice removed. Each “remove” corresponds to going another generation down one side of the family tree.

The word “removed” is used only when the relationship involves going down the family tree, to later generations. For instance, B2 and C4 are second cousins twice removed, not fourth cousins twice removed.

Example 1: What relation to you is Joe, your mother’s cousin’s great-grandson? Answer: In the chart above, the first cousins B1 and C1 must be your mother and her cousin. (If a relationship is just stated as “cousin”, usually that means “first cousin”.) You are then B2, the child of your mother. Your mother’s cousin is C1, and her great-grandson Joe would be C4, three generations below her. You (B2) are second cousin to C2; Joe is twice removed, or two generations below C2. Thus your mother’s [first] cousin’s great-grandson is your second cousin twice removed—and of course you are also his second cousin twice removed.

Example 2: A friend asked me to help him figure out what relationship he was to his mother’s aunt’s great-grandson. On the above chart, you’d place my friend at B2, his mother at B1, and her aunt at C0. Therefore the aunt’s great-grandson is at C3. My friend B2 and his relative C3 are second cousins once removed.

A Little Cousinly Algebra

For those among you who like algorithms, the idea is that in the phrase “Nth cousins R times removed”, you go up R generations in the longer branch to get to “Nth cousins”; then you go up N generations in both branches to get to siblings. Another way to look at it is that you go N generations up the short branch of the tree, cross over to a sibling, then go N+R generations down the long branch.

Terms Involving “Half” and “Step”

These terms apply when parents remarry. Sometimes they are used interchangeably, but they have distinct and well-defined meanings. The key distinction is that half siblings have one parent in common but not both; stepsiblings have no parents in common.

I’ll use the diagram below to illustrate these relationships. Mark and Sally had a son named John, and Harry and Sue had a daughter named Amanda. Mark and Sue died (or the marriages ended in divorce). Harry met Sally; they married, and had a daughter named Amelia.

Mark = (1) Sally (2) = (2) Harry (1) = Sue (1958) (1968) (1957) | | | | | | | | | John Amelia Amanda (1960- ) (1970- ) (1961- )

Step Relations

When a parent remarries, the new spouse is the stepfather or stepmother of any children from the previous marriage. For instance, Harry is the father of Amanda and Amelia and stepfather of John; Sally is the mother of John and Amelia and stepmother of Amanda.

The children from a previous marriage are stepsons and stepdaughters (generically, stepchildren). John is Harry’s stepson and Amanda is Sally’s stepdaughter.

By the way, you are no relation to your stepparent’s previous spouse. John, who is Harry’s stepson, might refer to Sue as “my stepfather’s ex-wife”, or simply “my stepfather’s ex”. (If he was hoping for Christmas presents, he might call her “Mom”!)

You are my stepbrother or stepsister if we have no parents in common but our parents have married each other. There are two ways you could be my stepsister:

If my mother marries a second time, and her new husband (my new stepfather) already has a daughter from a previous marriage, that daughter is my stepsister because one of her parents is married to one of my parents.

If my father marries a second time, and his new wife already has a daughter, that daughter is again my stepsister.

A similar rule gives the two ways for you to be my stepbrother.

In the diagram, John is Amanda’s stepbrother and Amanda is John’s stepsister. They have no parents in common, but John’s mother Sally is now married to Amanda’s father Harry. Amelia is not stepsister but half sister to both John and Amanda, because she shares one parent with each.

Half Relations

You are my half brother or half sister if we have one parent in common but not both. For instance, if my parents divorce or my father dies and my mother remarries, her new husband is my stepfather. If she and my stepfather have a daughter, that daughter is my half sister because we have the same mother but different fathers. The same is true if my father remarries and has a daughter with his new wife: that daughter is my half sister.

In the diagram, Amelia is John’s half sister and John is Amelia’s half brother, through their common mother Sally. Similarly, Amelia and Amanda are half sisters through their common father Harry.

Do you see the difference? If you are the child of my stepparent, you will be either my stepsibling or my half sibling. “Half” means you are the child of my parent and my stepparent; “step” means you are the child of my stepparent and someone else (not my parent). Half siblings have one parent in common; stepsiblings have no parents in common.

By the way, “stepbrother” and “stepsister” are always written as single words, without hyphens. “Half brother” and “half sister” are each written as two words (source: AHD4). Isn’t English a strange language?

Consanguinity, or Degree of Kinship

Degrees of consanguinity are used to compare the closeness of relationships in a legal context. For instance, if a person dies without leaving a will, his estate will be divided according to a legally prescribed order. Also, incest taboos prevent people marrying who are too closely related.

Consanguinity can be lineal, where one person is an ancestor of the other, or collateral, where the two people have a common ancestor but neither one is an ancestor of the other. Computing lineal consanguinity is easy: how many generations of descent are there? Thus a father and son are related in the first degree, a grandfather and grandson in the second degree, and so on.

H = W | ------------- | | B0(M) C0 | | B1 C1(F) | | B2 C2 | | etc. etc

Collateral consanguinity is trickier, and in fact there are two main systems:

The Roman method or civil law counts up from one person to the common ancestor, then down to the other person. On this system, B1 and C1 (first cousins) are related in the fourth degree (up from B1 to B0, to H and W, then down to C0 and C1: four transitions in total). B0 and C1 (uncle and niece) are related in the third degree.

or counts up from one person to the common ancestor, then down to the other person. On this system, B1 and C1 (first cousins) are related in the fourth degree (up from B1 to B0, to H and W, then down to C0 and C1: four transitions in total). B0 and C1 (uncle and niece) are related in the third degree. The Germanic method was used by Catholic canon law until 1983 and also historically by English and American law. It simply counts the length of the longer branch. On this system uncle and niece (such as B0 and C1) are related in the second degree, exactly the same as first cousins (such as B1 and C1).

(The above draws somewhat on François Velde’s Usenet article “Degrees” in alt.talk.royalty [28 Oct 2003, archived here], and the 1911 Britannica article “Consanguinity”, formerly available at 1911encyclopedia.org. Recent editions of the Britannica go into computation of consanguinity on the basis of shared DNA. On that basis great-grandparent and great-grandchild are related in the same degree as first cousins, because statistically each relationship involves 1/8 shared DNA.)

Life Changes, Relationship Changes

The terms given above have a long tradition behind them, but they came into use when society was a lot less mobile than it is today. Professional genealogists do it with diagrams and symbols, but how do various life events change the terms the rest of us use for relationships?

Adoption: The rule here is simple: Unless you’re a member of a European ruling house, someone who’s adopted is every bit as much a relative as someone who was born into the family. Whether your sister adopts a little girl or gives birth to one, that little girl is your niece. Whether or not little Jennifer knows she was adopted, you are her Aunt Helen and she is your niece. You wouldn’t refer to her as your adoptive niece, implying she’s not your “real” niece.

What about parents? Most adoptions occur when the children are very young. Their adoptive parents are most likely the only ones they know, and are usually referred to as mother and father. The woman who actually gave birth to the child is called, logically enough, the birth mother.

Death: For instance, if your husband dies, are his sister’s children still your nieces and nephews? Almost everyone would agree that they are. They’re not going to stop calling you “Aunt Helen”, presumably.

Divorce: This is the trickiest area. If you and your husband divorce, obviously his mother is still their grandmother, but is she still your mother-in-law? Some people would say yes; some would say no. Judith Martin (in Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior ; Atheneum, 1982; pages 565–6) favors some creative ambiguity, especially in everyday speech. Particularly if you are on good terms with them, whatever your relationship with your ex-husband, there’s no reason you can’t continue to call his children your nieces and nephews or why they shouldn’t go on calling you Aunt Helen.

If you need to make the relationship clear, you can always use a few extra words. My ex-husband’s stepbrother” is much more precise and accurate than “my brother-in-law”, but if you and the latter are on good terms there’s nothing wrong with speaking of each other as brother- and sister-in-law. The one exception, of course, is that divorced spouses can no longer refer to each other as “husband” and “wife” but must use “ex-husband” and “ex-wife” (informally, just “ex”), no matter how amicable the divorce.

Remarriage: Here, as with divorce, there’s no hard and fast rule. Depending on the connection you feel with the people in question, you could describe them as “my nieces and nephews” or “my first husband’s nieces and nephews”.

Of course common sense comes into it too. “Wouldn’t it be rather sweet”, Miss Manners asks, “to hear one grown man refer to another as ‘the father of my children’?” Well, maybe; but “my wife’s first husband” is a lot more clear.

Index of Terms

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