What is the plural of Roberts?

Just stick an apostrophe at the end

First of all, plural indicates more than one… it really has nothing to do with an apostrophe. Like birds is the plural of bird and stimuli is the plural of stimulus (see, no s at the end). So you really don’t have to worry about an apostrophe– just put The Roberts. Unless you wanted to indicate that they possess their house, like The Roberts’ House. Roberts’ is really singular in this case as in a family.

Think of it this way. If it was a name without an s on the end like, like Jackson, you would say The Jacksons if you meant more than one Jackson and The Jackson’s if you meant their house. Same here, Jackson’s is singular meaning family, not many Jackson individuals.

Roberts’s

The plural of Roberts is Robertses. Both of the Robertses came to the party.

The singular possessive is Roberts’s. Mr. Roberts’s book is on the table.

(You almost always add ‘s to make a singular posessive.)

The plural possessive is Robertses’. Both of the Robertses’ cars are Mercedes.

(You almost always at ‘ to make a plural possessive)

The last one looks odd only because we rarely need to write these things, we usually only say them, and the context of our speech is often enough to make our meaning clear.

Roberts’. It is only proper to pluralize a word ending with “s” with “es” if it actually sounds ok. Like “mess”, for instance can be pluralized to “messes” because it sounds ok. “Robertses” sounds weird so it pluralized simply “Roberts'” This is true, in this case, how it sounds will determine how it is written. Before you pluralize a word that ends with “s”, say it out loud a few times. You’ll see…:o)

AP Stylebook would have you make it Robertses. (Retired newspaper employee)