Hussein. I hear he’s returning. And running for President.
Happy
According to Gramma Rose “Holy”. To her “Jesus Christ” was a curse but by adding the “Holy” it became a prayer.
Terrific lady – lived to 98 and drank most of her life. Which some of you may have already guessed.
I heard once, and consider a serious contender, the assertion that it’s a euphemism for the not-so-quick-to-appear-in-print “Jesus F Christ.”
Hellraiser
This one deserves some special thought!
It’s to remind us the J is silent.
Hesus.
Nitpick: a silent J would give you Esus. Pronouncing J as in Spanish “Hesus” or German “Yesus” is not silent.
Hooker-lovin’.
Clemens’s notebooks mention it around 1888, so his memory of the timing was probably faulty. A widely reprinted short newspaper piece from 1885 refers to “Jesus H. Christ” as a Spanish name, apparently seriously (well, seriously in the context of making fun of those funny Spanish names), suggesting (a) it goes back at least that far and (b) it was not yet widely recognized.
Of course, none of this tells us what the H stands for, but Lighter’s theory is the most plausible I’ve heard.
As you’ve so perfectly demonstrated, it doesn’t stand for anything, because it doesn’t need to.
Meaning comes from usage and in this case, you certainly didn’t need to assign any meaning to it in order to use it and I don’t need to assign a meaning in order to understand you, so it doesn’t need to stand for anything. It’s just an embellishment that works fine on it’s own as a letter.
Hashimoto.
It’s probably from IHS. Latin and Greek terms had a huge cultural impact. Sort of the same thing as the term “hocus pocus” coming from the Latin “hoc est corpus meum” (“This is my body”), which people heard every week in church for centuries.
Frankly, I don’t think it’s anything at all except a random syllable inserted to serve purposes of meter and emphasis on the model of other typically American names with a middle initial.
Well, Jesus was a nice Jewish boy, so… probably Howard or Hy.