But it’s his professional name. And since it doesn’t stand for anything, J. is his complete middle name. I say it counts.
Likewise Harry H. Corbett. He was an actor known in England. Probably not well known elsewhere.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Alexander Graham Bell
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Francis Ford Coppola
Mary Stuart Masterson
Edward James Olmos
Harry Dean Stanton
Mary Chapin Carpenter
(And about gazillion Miss Americas, and lots of country music Stars)
Rachel Lee Cook
Billy Ray Cyrus
John Michael Montgomery
David Allan Coe
OK, we’ll throw out those that are nicknames. There’s actually two in the OP list that are nicknames, by the way.
And some of the suggestions are not people who are mainly known by their full name. Lyndon Johnson, for example.
For some reason, a lot of kids on TV shows go by three names. It may be a SAG/AFTRA issue.
However, Bryan now goes by just Zach Bryan - at least, he did when he was in the 2005 ESPN movie about the 1951 West Point football team cheating scandal (they didn’t cheat on the field; they cheated in classes to make sure they would remain eligible).
Joe Don Looney
Lee Roy Selmon
June Carter Cash
Ho Chi Minh
Jo Anne Worley
William Howard Taft
Dick Van Dyke
Harry Von Zell
Charles Evans Hughes
Grover Cleveland Alexander (nowadays, his nickname of “Pete” is often used, but that originated after he had been billed with his full name)
John Montgomery Ward
Cordelia Titcomb Smith – Put together a very successful anthology of SF stories.
Robert Todd Lincoln
Alice Roosevelt Longworth
Henry Ward Beecher
James McNeill Whistler
Edward Everett Hale
John Singer Sargent
Mary Kay Place
John Howard Payne (songwriter, “Be it Ever so Humble, There’s No Place Like Home”)
Nacio Herb Brown (“Singin’ in the Rain”)
John Cameron Swayze (network news anchor)
John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin, not the naval officer)
Is “Van” considered a middle name? If so, then Dick Van Patten would also qualify.
Anthony Michael Hall
Metta World Peace
No, it’s a common prefix for Dutch and Belgian surnames. Dick Van Dyke is Richard Wayne Van Dyke, and Dick Van Patten is Richard Vincent Van Patten.
Not usually. Van and von are generally part of the surname. They mean “of” or “from” in Dutch and German. It’s the exact same thing as de/di in Romance languages.
Richard Dean Anderson
Coretta Scott King
And, several football players named Billy (something) (something):
Billy Joe DuPree
Billy Joe Tolliver
Billy Joe Hobert
Billy Ray Smith (father and son)
Three different men, all of whom had ownership stakes in the Washington Redskins at some point:
George Preston Marshall
Edward Bennett Williams
Jack Kent Cook
And, Williams’ name reminded me of actor Edward Everett Horton.
John Wesley Hardin (gunslinger)
John Wesley Powell(explorer of the Grand Canyon)
Mopsy Strange Kennedy (writer)
Based on the dearth of hits when I Googled her, I gather she’s not especially well known. But boy, once that name gets in your head, it never leaves.
Personally, I would allow nicknames that are based on real names (William December “Billy Dee” Williams Jr.) but not those that are just made up (“Sugar” Ray Charles Leonard), but it’s your thread.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Mary Wollenstonecraft Shelley
Thomas Love Peacock
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
William Butler Yeats
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Edna St. Vincent Millay (St. Vincent being a single name)