# Names with Initials (only)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 9, 2019, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911 "2019-09-09T01:35:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/1 "2019-09-09T01:35:14Z")
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?
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/2 "2019-09-09T01:48:48Z")
Sounds like the episode of _M_A_S_H\*, 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.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/3 "2019-09-09T02:17:01Z")
> [@MadTheSwine](#):
>
> 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?
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.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/4 "2019-09-09T02:22:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> [Reader’s Digest, 1958]
>
> My friend R.B. Jones doesn’t have a first or middle name — only the initials R.B. This unusual arrangement was never a problem until he went to work for a government agency. The government is not accustomed to initialed employees, so R.B. had a lot of explaining to do. On the official forms for the payroll and personnel departments, his name was carefully entered as R (Only) B (Only) Jones.
>
> Sure enough, when R.B. got his pay check, it was made out to Ronly Bonly Jones.
Bennett Cerf stole it for one of his joke books, too.
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### Author:  [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/5 "2019-09-09T02:31:55Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> Sounds like the episode of _M_A_S_H\*, 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.
FWIIW, named for his mom Bea and his dad Jay.
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### Author:  [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/6 "2019-09-09T02:33:58Z")
> [@MadTheSwine](#):
>
> 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?
Henry Cho used that for one of his stand-up bits, talking about his friend “Jonly Bonly.”
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/7 "2019-09-09T02:44:56Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> Sounds like the episode of _M_A_S_H\*, 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.
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.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/8 "2019-09-09T02:45:47Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> 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?
Yup, as rsat3acer noted. 🙂 Though, BJ still insisted (and all of his records indicated) that it was, in fact, “BJ,” and not “Bea Jay.”
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### Author:  [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/9 "2019-09-09T02:53:25Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/10 "2019-09-09T03:00:56Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/11 "2019-09-09T08:17:47Z")
> [@jz78817](#):
>
> Henry Cho used that for one of his stand-up bits, talking about his friend “Jonly Bonly.”
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.
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### Author:  [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/12 "2019-09-09T10:18:03Z")
> [@rsat3acr](#):
>
> FWIIW, named for his mom Bea and his dad Jay.
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.
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/13 "2019-09-09T11:19:14Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#):
>
> 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.
“What’s that clickin’ noise?”
😃
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/14 "2019-09-09T11:52:54Z")
> [@MadTheSwine](#):
>
> Have you ever heard this from an Initialed only person?
I have read a similar story told about mathematician [R. H. Bing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._H._Bing#What_does_R._H._stand_for?).
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### Author:  [@Oglomott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oglomott)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/15 "2019-09-09T15:04:17Z")
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).
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/16 "2019-09-09T15:11:32Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/17 "2019-09-09T15:15:19Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/18 "2019-09-09T15:16:15Z")
[This member](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=1379996&postcount=9) of SDMB claimed this in fact happened to her father–although in his case it was ‘Ronly Nonly,’ instead of ‘Ronly Bonly.’
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/19 "2019-09-09T15:31:12Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-with-initials-only/839911/20 "2019-09-09T16:32:07Z")
Somewhere in my mom’s side of the family were two brothers named “A. B.” and “C. D.”
That’s just fucking lazy.
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