# What is Jesus Christ's middle name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 22, 2000, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173 "2000-09-22T18:38:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![harold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8491ac/32.png) [@harold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harold)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/1 "2000-09-22T18:38:06Z")
Jesus H Christ! Cecil you had many significant historical explanations, but you ignored plain old bible verses, the source for many common phrases. H stands for Himself or at least thats what I had always heard. I did a word search on a King James Version web site and it kicked out a bunch of examples of this phrase. Luke 3:23 and Jesus himself began to be about 30, Luke 24:36 Jesus himself stood in the midst, John 4:2 Jesus himself… you get the idea. To bad it doesn’t stand for Harold ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/2 "2000-09-22T20:23:05Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, and thank you for posting your comment. Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site. To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in your post (make sure there is a space **before** and **after** the text of the URL). Cecil’s column can be found on-line at this link: [Why do folks say “Jesus H. Christ”?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_033.html) The column can also be found on pages 33-34 of Cecil Adams’ book “[_The Straight Dope_](http://www.straightdope.com/otheroutlets/books.html)”. * * * moderator, [« **Comments on Cecil’s Columns** »](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=1) ---
**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/3 "2000-09-23T18:38:23Z")
Jesus H. Christ’s middle name? Haploid. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/4 "2000-09-23T18:40:13Z")
Guess I shoulda read the column first. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2000, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/5 "2000-09-25T15:30:40Z")
“H stands for Himself or at least thats what I had always heard.” More proof that God is actually Irish. 'Tis Himself! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tshirts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@tshirts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tshirts)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/6 "2000-09-26T18:17:32Z")
This is the only one that makes sense to me. Necessary and sufficient. > [@](#): > > _frm link above_ > (2) It recalls the H in the IHS logo emblazoned on much Christian paraphernalia. IHS dates from the earliest years of Christianity, being an abbreviation of “Jesus” in classical Greek characters. The Greek pronunciation is “Iesous,” with the E sound being represented by the character eta, which looks like an H. When the symbol passed to Christian Romans, for whom an H was an H, the unaccountable character eventually became accepted as Jesus’s middle initial. ---
**Author:** ![Rich\_Mann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@Rich\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_Mann)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/7 "2000-10-03T00:05:46Z")
Being Jewish he would have had as his last name his fathers first name; Joseph. Thus his full name was Yeshua ben Yusif. Middle name; ben (meaning “son of”) ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/8 "2000-10-03T02:23:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by E d’Mann \* > \*\*Being Jewish he would have had as his last name his fathers first name; Joseph. > Thus his full name was Yeshua ben Yusif. > Middle name; ben (meaning “son of”) \*\* Umm, wasn’t the whole big deal about Jesus that his father **wasn’t** Joseph? I would think Yeshua ben Adonai was more accurate. Although, I’m sure his mother just called him late for dinner. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![TinCanMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@TinCanMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TinCanMan)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/9 "2000-10-03T16:04:33Z")
I think it would go to follow that in formal situations God should then be addressed as Mr. Christ as in: “Hello Mr. Christ. May Jesus come out and play?.” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Mike\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_B)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/10 "2002-05-30T03:24:13Z")
> [@](#): > > The H stands for Harold, as in, “Our Father, who art in heaven, Harold be thy name” (snort). Source: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_033](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_033) Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kindom come, thy will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespassed against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from Evil, Amen. Last I checked (I’m Athiest, but took religion…), in this prayer, Father is referring to God, not Jesus. Therefore, although it’s a joke, Cecil would be calling God “Harold”, not Jesus “Harold…” Have I, by some slight chance in hell caught Cecil? ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/11 "2002-05-30T11:43:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mike B \* > Have I, by some slight chance in hell caught Cecil? Nah. Harold is God’s _first_ name. Just like my Dad gave me his first name as my middle name, God used _His_ first name as His son’s middle name. Jesus Harold Christ. I assume that, had Jesus had a son, He would have continued the tradition, naming His son Tyler Jesus Christ or Dylan Jesus Christ or whatever struck His fancy. ---
**Author:** ![Rib\_Eye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@Rib\_Eye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rib_Eye)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/12 "2002-05-30T13:16:10Z")
Rollins once speculated on the idea that it would be cool if it was Hitler. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/13 "2002-06-05T11:51:40Z")
Also, as has sort of been mentioned by E d’Mann, Christ was not Jesus’s surname: it is just a title or term of respect, from the Greek meaning “anointed one”. So Jesus Christ as a name is more like “Alfred the Great”: “Jesus the Christ”, “Jesus the anointed”. So logically the H stands for Jesus’s surname, or is a corruption of “the”. On the other hand, it could be purely fictitious and stand for nothing whatsoever, but where’s the fun in that? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/14 "2002-06-05T14:55:31Z")
Well, if you want to be that boring about it, singular concepts (like God (the one-and-only god of monotheism), The Word (as in “In the beginning there was the Word…”), and The Christ) are preceded in Greek with a syllable that sounds like “ha” (I’m told it means “the”). So obviously, this is a “Smoky the Bear” type riddle: “What’s Jesus ha-Christos’s middle name? Ha!” ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2002, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/15 "2002-06-09T21:30:25Z")
I think it wouldn’t be “ha”, but ‘[symbol]o[/symbol], the masculine singular nominative of the definite article. That’s omicron with a rough breathing mark, transliterated “ho”, and pronounced more like “haw”. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2002, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/16 "2002-06-10T16:03:58Z")
Like I said, “ha.” Note that the REST of the name was also typed in the English manner. ---
**Author:** ![NumberSixx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7cd45c/32.png) [@NumberSixx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NumberSixx)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jesus-christs-middle-name/34173/17 "2002-06-12T02:41:16Z")
I think I might just have the answer. [www.christonthecrapper.com/cgi-bin/seriesview.cgi?ser=theh](http://www.christonthecrapper.com/cgi-bin/seriesview.cgi?ser=theh)