harry potter - Why didn't the Marauder's Map identify Barty Crouch Jr.?

It is a major plot point in Goblet of Fire that the Marauder's map identifies Bartemius Crouch Jr. as simply Bartemius Crouch; therefore leading to the confusion that Bartemius Crouch (Sr.) was the person searching Snape's office.

This has always bothered me a bit; surely the Marauder's map would be able to distinguish between two different people? If Barty Sr. and Barty Jr. were standing next to each other, would the map show Bartemius Crouch twice?

Are there other instances of the Marauder's Map not showing the complete truth that would make it seem more plausible that it can't distinguish between a Sr. and Jr.?

Answer

At the risk of stating the obvious, the map appears to be designed to show the full forename and surname of each person in range. Although he might be known as "Barty Crouch Jr", that's not actually his name.

IF A =>1 THEN PRINT 'FIRSTNAME + SECONDNAME'

It's incredibly unlikely that his actual name ended with the word Junior (or Jr) since in the English upper-class tradition the nominative 'Sr/Jr' is merely an affectation.

Comments

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