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This headline (today) tells me that the three victims of a tragic road incident were from different families, but maybe not three different families.

The boys' next of kin have been informed, the Met Police said.

Could it have been worded 'the boys' three next of kin' ?

Edit : I have now found a very obscure reference :

... the two next of kin by the father and the two by the mother ...

An Institute of the Law of Scotland

Nigel J
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  • ODO says “treated as singular or plural”, so I’d say yes to the original title question before the edit (viz., that next of kin can be plural). Whether or not it’s countable is another matter. Doesn’t sound right to me. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 27 '18 at 14:44
  • Just like lines of succession, isn't there a whole string of next(s) of kin? – Lawrence Jan 27 '18 at 16:02
  • @Lawrence So 'nexts' of kin is legitimate ? – Nigel J Jan 27 '18 at 16:07
  • @NigelJ Upon reflection, probably not in that context. Consider: "Who are* your next of kin?" I was trying to say that one can have a plurality of people who (in succession) would be considered the same person's next of kin*. – Lawrence Jan 27 '18 at 16:08
  • @NigelJ Consider the hypothetical case of Alice and Bob being parents of Charlie, their only child. Both Alice and Bob (i.e. more than one person) might be listed as Charlie's next of kin. – Lawrence Jan 27 '18 at 16:16
  • @Lawrence If it is unspecific, does that make it uncountable ? I am thinking that the only way the Police could have worded it would be 'the three families of the three boys have been informed' - in order to make clear that three families were involved, not one of three siblings or two with one/two siblings. – Nigel J Jan 27 '18 at 16:28
  • To make it clear that there were multiple families involved, they could have written “The next of kin of each of the three boys have been informed”. At least to me, that rules out the possibility that it’s only one family. To make it clear that it’s three families, they would indeed have to say so outright; I cannot think of any way to phrase that completely unambiguously without going into mathematical-legalese nonsense (“the single individual and non-intersecting family of each of the three boys”, I suppose). – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 27 '18 at 19:02
  • But the article doesn’t actually say anything about whether the three boys came from one, two, or three families. Even if there had only been one boy, they would still likely have written, “The boy’s next of kin have been informed”. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 27 '18 at 19:03
  • Being unspecific doesn’t make it uncountable. “The chairs” doesn’t say how many, but chairs remains countable there. The issue here might be related to the way next is used normally: you might say “the next 3 boys” but “the 3 nexts” or even “the 3 next boys” doesn’t sound quite as good. I think it’s more natural to put the number after ‘next’, not before it: “the next 3 of kin”, or even “the next several of kin”. – Lawrence Feb 01 '18 at 12:36
  • "The boys' three next of kin have been informed" sounds perfectly fine to my Midwest US ears. – Hot Licks Feb 12 '18 at 00:39
  • It is British English news though... next doesn't get inflected here. Or counted, generally. – Will Crawford Feb 25 '18 at 02:28
  • @WillCrawford I still think that the whole phrase 'next of kin' is singular, myself. It means the nearest living relative, of which there is only one. – Nigel J Feb 25 '18 at 02:35
  • I see what you mean, but the have (as emphasised in the question) agrees with the boys'. And there may be one for each boy without changing the meaning of the phrase? – Will Crawford Feb 25 '18 at 02:39
  • (I still think next-of-kin should be hyphenated, anyway) – Will Crawford Feb 25 '18 at 02:40

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Very, very unlikely but not quite impossible. The governor here is context.

Even that plural possessive "the boys'…" won't make "… three next of kin" clear to most listeners. Ears just don't work that way.

One might get away with "all three next of kin… ", which should prolly be "nexts…"

One would be successful with "all three boys' next(s) of kin… ".

Robbie Goodwin
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