punctuation - How do you punctuate a list of titles and names?

I want to write a sentence that has a list of descriptive terms and then names, but I'm unclear as to how to do it...

Herman my brother, George my nephew and I went to the market.

If I put commas between Herman and my brother then it can be understood that someone named Herman as well as whoever my brother might be were going to the store with me. There are three people going to the market in the sentence above, not five.

What's the correct way to punctuate this to make it clear that Herman is my brother and not just one of the five people heading out?

Answer

Ignore the people telling you to re-write. Punctuation is part of writing, and there's a wonderful punctuation mark waiting on your home row right now that's eager to help out: the semicolon.

Herman, my brother; George, my nephew; and I went to the market.

Semicolons aren't just for related sentences like this one; they're also the fall-back list separator for when the list items themselves include commas.

As a child I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; The Sword of Shannara; and A Wrinkle in Time.