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Claudii is an established plural, actually. Legolas Send a noteboard - 01/11/2011 10:02:52 PM
If in an alternate reality you were confronted by a mob of Jesus clones, and you wanted to say, "Oh shit, look at all those ________!", what would you use besides "Jesuses"? After all, I'm fairly certain other names follow a similar form. "There are a lot of Guses in this town." "Did you see all those Samuses at that cosplay convention?" Unless Jesus as a name has a special grammatical convention for plurality? Such as Jesu or something? Or perhaps it is like a moose and you would simply say, "Look at all those Jesus!" That seems potentially grammatically vague. Surely you don't mean to imply that it should be converted like a Latin word and be Jesi? I would have thought that would not apply to proper names. Though that is a good question. If Claudius were cloned, would you say, "Holy shit, look at all those Claudii!"?

What with it being a family name (calling it "last name" is a bit confusing in the Roman naming system), the plural was sometimes used when referring to an entire family, or to several people (the most famous example is probably "the Gracchi", the two brothers Gracchus in the second century B.C.).

Actual first names are a different story, of course.

Though really, since Jesus' native language was Aramaic and his friends and family called him something closer to Joshua than to Jesus (I don't recall what exactly it is in Hebrew/Aramaic), it seems a little absurd to go look at Latin plurals - if you're gonna translate his name to another language anyhow, you might as well just stick with the English plurals.

I think possibly I'm taking this question even more too seriously than you did... :P And now I'm wondering about the grammaticality or lack thereof of the previous sentence, which probably means I'm starting to ramble and should leave it at this. ;)
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It's so weird trying to explain Halloween to people who didn't grow up with it - 01/11/2011 02:26:52 PM 632 Views
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I'm not going to do a history lesson, but... - 01/11/2011 09:22:59 PM 284 Views
What would you say is the proper plural form of Jesus? - 01/11/2011 09:51:31 PM 285 Views
Claudii is an established plural, actually. - 01/11/2011 10:02:52 PM 346 Views
I want to reread Lamb: The story of Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal now - 01/11/2011 11:38:26 PM 355 Views
Jesī *NM* - 01/11/2011 10:06:29 PM 174 Views
Minor addendum: it seems to be a defective fourth declension. The plural should still be Iesūs. - 01/11/2011 10:44:08 PM 246 Views
Ah, interesting. - 02/11/2011 10:22:37 AM 216 Views
The source? Any good Latin grammar should do. *NM* - 02/11/2011 05:06:31 PM 103 Views
Also, a massive number of names follow 3rd declension. - 02/11/2011 05:30:16 PM 184 Views
He is singular in nature - 01/11/2011 10:08:43 PM 274 Views
Ha. - 01/11/2011 10:14:25 PM 200 Views
Re: Ha. - 02/11/2011 01:12:22 AM 277 Views
Lots of Mexican guys in one room could still be "Jesuses". *NM* - 01/11/2011 10:47:03 PM 76 Views
So is it Jesūs, Jesii, or Jesuses then? - 02/11/2011 01:04:58 AM 200 Views
maybe his name is a plural anyway *NM* - 01/11/2011 11:13:03 PM 104 Views
Halloween isn't a Christian holiday, at least not originally. - 01/11/2011 10:26:58 PM 268 Views
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Oh, well of course not. - 02/11/2011 01:08:33 AM 208 Views
I know all of this, and care not. - 01/11/2011 11:37:12 PM 180 Views
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Thanks, Isaac - 02/11/2011 03:08:14 AM 212 Views
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US Halloween is neither... - 01/11/2011 10:08:10 PM 240 Views
It seems internationally understood from what I can tell. - 01/11/2011 10:48:02 PM 234 Views
Aren't morbid celebrations to ward away spirits pretty common throughout the world? *NM* - 01/11/2011 11:20:45 PM 105 Views
That's not what Halloween is in the US, though. Not anymore. *NM* - 01/11/2011 11:34:27 PM 89 Views
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I honestly wasn't making it a US thing - 02/11/2011 02:50:08 PM 244 Views

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