I have a friend that has initials only for a first name(I will call him DC Smith) . He claims the Army, companies or people asked him so often what the DC stood for, he started writing D(only) C(only) Smith on his paperwork.
He then claimed he started getting mail for Donly Conly Smith, sound like BS to me and could never provide a letter that had that name on it.
Have you ever heard this from an Initialed only person?
Sounds like the episode of MASH*, where Hawkeye is obsessed with figuring out what “BJ” stands for, only to learn that BJ only had initials, not names.
I’ve never known someone whose name was solely initials, myself.
Yes. I’ve heard it – in a joke book I read about a half century ago.
Nice to know the corny old jokes never die.
Bennett Cerf stole it for one of his joke books, too.
FWIIW, named for his mom Bea and his dad Jay.
Henry Cho used that for one of his stand-up bits, talking about his friend “Jonly Bonly.”
I remember that episode, but it’s been awhile since I’ve seen it. Didn’t it turn out that BJ stood for Bea Jay? Named after his mother and father, or something like that?
EDIT: Now I see post No. 5.
Yup, as rsat3acer noted. 
Though, BJ still insisted (and all of his records indicated) that it was, in fact, “BJ,” and not “Bea Jay.”
My ex-wife’s grandfather apparently went by the initials “ZT.” They meant something, according to my ex-wife who never knew her grandfather’s real name; but “Zee-tee” worked for everybody, so that was how everybody knew him.
Apparently, if he was asked what “ZT” stood for, he’d reply “Zachary Taylor,” but my ex never knew if he was joking or not.
My Daddy was named T.A. it was on his birth certificate. 2 of his brothers were also initials named. Daddy had his name legally changed after he married my Mother.
He always said his Mom was just weird. All his sisters names started with an A.
No middle names for the girls. Daddy carried that notion down to us.
Beat me to it. I didn’t realize it was such an old, well-known joke.
Heh. I love that whole stand-up special. Good ol’ Jonly Bonly.
He said that, yes, but it was in such a way that Hawkeye didn’t take him seriously. As far as I’m concerned, the Reverend J. B. Honeydew’s true name is still a mystery.
“What’s that clickin’ noise?”
I have read a similar story told about mathematician R. H. Bing.
I worked with a guy whose first name was “JC”. He said that was his actual first name; that the JC didn’t stand for anything. His son was also named JC (junior).
The thread’s gone on this long without anyone mentioning Harry S Truman?
Not only is there no initial after that middle “S”, but according to David McCullouch’s bio of him, exactly what the “S” was supposed to be standing for was deliberately kept nebulous. Each side of the family could assume it was derived from someone on their side. So the “S” doesn’t really stand for anything.
My grandfather only had a middle initial, F. When he joined the Army in 1920, someone changed it to Files. My uncle was also given a middle initial but no name, it was F also. When he joined the Air Force, he was told he had to give a middle name, not an initial . He used the name Files too. This wasn’t a problem till he retired and wanted to collect Social Security. Somehow the name Files was attached to his SS account. Took him a year to clear up the issue.
This member of SDMB claimed this in fact happened to her father–although in his case it was ‘Ronly Nonly,’ instead of ‘Ronly Bonly.’
Johnny Cash’s birth name was J.R. Cash
The book Rock and Other Four Letter Words was written by J Marks. His whole name was J Marks. And it had photographs by Linda Eastman, who got together with Paul McCartney while photographing London rock stars for the book.
Somewhere in my mom’s side of the family were two brothers named “A. B.” and “C. D.”
That’s just fucking lazy.