Thursday, January 4, 2024

Presidential Last Names

Most US presidents have unique last names.  Only a handful of last names are repeated.  Interestingly, most of those repeats are relatives of one another.

Adams

John Adams (1797-1801) was the father of John Quincy Adams (1825-1829).  Of note, both of them were one term presidents.  Both were preceded and followed by two term presidents.  John Adams followed George Washington (1789-1797) and was followed by Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809).  John Quincy was preceded by James Monroe (1817-1825) and followed by Andrew Jackson (1829-1837).

Harrison

William Henry Harrison (1841) was the grandfather of Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893).

Johnson

Andrew Johnson (1865-1869) is not related to Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963-1969).  Oddly enough, the Johnsons have a lot of other things in common.  Andrew was born in 1808, while LBJ was born in 1908.  Both took over the presidency following an assassination.  Both had been senators before being chosen for Vice President.

Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) was the fifth cousin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945).  Franklin married Theodore's niece, Eleanor.  Eleanor was the daughter of Theodore's younger brother, Elliot, which means her maiden name was Roosevelt.

Bush

George Bush (1989-1993) was the father of George W. Bush (2001-2009), making this the second father-son pair.  However, where John Adams and John Quincy Adams' presidencies were separated by 24 years and 3 presidents, the Bush's only had Bill Clinton (1993-2001) between them.

There you have some more presidential trivia!

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