W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel, Governor of Texas
For some reason, that made Robert E Lee spring to mind.
J. C. Penney
C. W Post
R. J. Reynolds
JP Morgan
P. G. Wodehouse.
“Arty” so not allowed I’m afraid. But that does form a neat circle back to the thread I linked to in the OP with (Reginald) Jeeves.
He’s an author, but his name’s so weird I had to contribute anyway:
Breece D’J Pancake
How soon we forget…
George W. Bush
I am SO having a child and calling it Rob D’J Dog (possibly with a “the second” for good measure.
How about W. E. B. Du Bois?
Booker T Washington
John D Rockefeller
Thanks for that, an interesting person indeed that I’d not heard of before. I wonder why he became known as W E B when he apparently insisted as being addressed as Dr. Du Bois?
Oh, and from that Wikipedia article… Booker T Washington.
Ninja’d!
If you actually look at scholarly and scientific publications, you will find that the authors almost always use initials for any middle names they may have, and sometimes for their first name too. Furthermore, citation styles for scientific works (not so much so in the humanities) just about universally prescribe that just the initial should be used for the first name as well. Thus, in an important sense, all scientists, these days, are formally known within their profession by their initials (and last name). That does not carry over into popularizations of science, of course, but then, authors there are deliberately striving for informality.
Mind you, even in science popularizations, some scientist remain primarily or commonly known via their initials rather than their forenames: P.A.M. Dirac, J.J. Thompson, J.B. Watson, and T.H. Huxley spring to mind.
In the humanities (history), E.P. Thompson is one.
Hmmmmm. Doesn’t look like there are any women in this thread. Wonder why?
Ah, interesting. I wonder if that convention has led to those in the arts using initials as a way of adding a gloss of seriousness to themselves?
H. Ross Perot
J.R. “Bob” Dobbs
Ulysses S Grant
Annie E. Casey
John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur
Alfred P. Sloan (Lots of people who leave money to foundations, aparently!)
Alfred E. Newman (What? He counts!)
Which brings to mind JEB Stewart. (Pronounced ‘Jeb’, but it IS his initials.)
Right. So plenty of examples from outside of the arts. Obviously my initial list was skewed by my woeful lack of general knowledge.
I wonder then if there is a genesis for this trend? What’s the earliest example anyone can come up with of a figure who commonly used initials as their first/middle names?
G. Gordon Liddy
F.A.O. Schwartz (known as a store now, but named after founder Frederick August Otto Schwarz).