>lDoesSuffixExist evaluates to .F. for this. It must be something simple, but I can't see it. I was expecting .T. as the result.
>
>

>tcName = "Thurston Howell III"
>lDoesSuffixExist = INLIST(UPPER(tcName),"PHD","II","III","IV","V","JR","SR","ESQ","CPA","CEA","DD","MD","JD")
>

It works as it is designed for. Did you look it up in Help?

If you want to check for the suffix, you may put all your suffixes in the table or array and check for each one in a name string, e.g.

if " " + lcSuffix + " " $ " " + lcName + " "
  && Name has suffix, exit from the loop
endif