What would your descendants need to remember about you? Part I

Names & Nobility

Author

Ray Doraisamy
December 24, 2025

It still surprises me everyday to watch my son grow.

The pace is such that I expect this surprise will go on indefinitely, at least until I’m in my seventies.

So as I think about his education, I think about my parents, their parents, and the ancestors before that. I know almost nothing about my ancestors.

Not even their names.

From Middle English noble, from Old French noble, from Latin nōbilis (“knowable, known, well-known, famous, celebrated, high-born, of noble birth, excellent”), from nōscere, gnōscere (“to know”).

Wiktionary

As a child, my parents were known in the northeast of the island. Even though that island had hundreds of thousands of people, I could not go anywhere without being recognized.

I chafed at this surveillance, but there was an advantage to it.

One I did not use as an adult, though, a few years ago, I went back for the first time in more than a decade.

I was recognized on the street by someone who had not seen me since I was 13.

Just how valuable was the inheritance of being known that I largely threw away, by never going back?

In the American Presidency, we know it worked well for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Quincy Adams, and Benjamin Harrison.

George W. Bush.

But does that hold at scale?

In Political Dynasties by Ernesto & Pedro Dal Bó (are they related??) and Jack Snyder, we find the answer is yes.

In politics, power begets power.

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A longer period in power increases the chance that a person may start (or continue) a political dynasty.

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Holding legislative power for more than one term increases the likelihood that a politician will have a relative entering Congress in the future by about 70%.

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Dynastic politicians are less likely to have previous public office experience.

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Dynastic politicians are significantly more likely to be female than non-dynastic ones.

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Shocks to political power have persistent effects through posterior family attainment.

Political Dynasties

This was a look at how just how much of an advantage a previous family member can be, for US House Reps and Senators.

So what do your descendants have to remember, for this?

That others have trusted your name before.

Inherited trust, from past time in power.

Perhaps, there is something about the Five Good Emperors there.

And the name Caesar itself.

A name, after all, is one of the foundations of communicating over a vast gulf of space.