# Who is the first person we know as FI - Middle Name - Last Name? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 7, 2024, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226 "2024-05-07T13:23:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2024, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226/81 "2024-05-12T11:22:53Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Some earlier examples include C.L. Moore (born 1911), C.J. Cherryh (born 1942), and Star Trek screenwriter D.C. Fontana (born 1938). There’s also Alice Andre Norton, who went by her middle name. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2024, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226/82 "2024-05-12T16:49:22Z")
C. J. Cherryh apparently picked the initials because she was afraid of sexism in the field. C. L. Moore, however, did so because she was working at a bank and couldn’t let them know she was writing pulp of any kind. D. C. Fontana started out as Dorothy C. Fontana but shifted to initials because of perceived sexism in the television industry, not specifically the genre. I happen to have studied this for older science fiction. My article, [The Women in Gnome Press](https://gnomepress.com/the-woman-of-gnome-press/), does an in-depth look at writers in the field in the 30s and 40s, including Moore. And Andre Norton. Her birth name was Alice Mary Norton. She said she picked Andre in the early 30s because she wanted to write boy’s adventure fiction but also legally changed her name to Andre Norton the same year. No one knows exactly why. And she published her Gnome books as Andrew North. No one knows exactly why. Even dedicated websites contradict themselves when it comes to Norton info, so I made my best guesses from the various bits of evidence. My site, [gnomepress.com](http://gnomepress.com), has a page on every book that Gnome published along with short bios for each author. You can find Moore’s and Norton’s books on the [Alphabetical by Author](https://gnomepress.com/alphabetical-by-author/) bibliography page. I probably should also mention E. M. Hull. Edna May Hull changed her name to Edna Mayne van Vogt when she married Canadian Alfred Vogt, who legally changed his name to Alfred Elton [A. E.] van Vogt when he gained American citizenship. Hull’s stories were supposed to be credited to E. Mayne Hull but John W. Campbell ran them as E. M. Hull in _Astounding_, possibly to match the A. E. in van Vogt. If you want to know what drove me around the bend, it was 100 pages of this stuff. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2024, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226/83 "2024-05-12T16:51:00Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I happen to have studied this for older science fiction. My article, [The Women in Gnome Press](https://gnomepress.com/the-woman-of-gnome-press/), does an in-depth look at writers in the field in the 30s and 40s, including Moore. When I was writing my reply, there was a voice in the back of my head that was saying, “you know, I seem to remember that this is an area where Exapno probably knows a lot more about this than you.” My apologies! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2024, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226/84 "2024-05-12T17:21:35Z")
Which, of course, calls to mind E. Nesbit, which is a similar story a from few decades earlier, with similar mysterious name changes but a more unusual sex life. [The Life and Loves of E Nesbit review – melodrama and menage a trois | Biography books | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/26/the-life-and-loves-of-e-nesbit-by-eleanor-fitzsimons-review) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2024, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226/85 "2024-05-12T17:34:02Z")
No mention of that Rowling person? She was kind of vaguely known about. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2024, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226/86 "2024-05-12T19:28:02Z")
Just looked up Rowling. Turns out the K doesn’t actually stand for anything, since she didn’t originally have a middle name. The same thing with F. Murray Abraham, who doesn’t have a first name beginning with F. They both took the inital letter from the name of a family member, but they didn’t actually take the name. So I’m not sure how to handle these cases. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2024, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226/87 "2024-05-12T20:15:02Z")
Other non-sci-fi female authors: A.S. Byatt P.D. James P.L. Travers ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2024, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226/88 "2024-05-12T20:22:14Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > My apologies! None needed! I love any opportunity to take my ego out for a wash and polish. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226/89 "2024-05-28T20:19:10Z")
B. Chance Saltzman, 1969 CSO, USSF: Chief of Space Operations for the US Space Force ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226/90 "2024-05-28T21:46:57Z")
Another three-initial name: J.M.W. Turner 1775 ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226/91 "2024-05-29T06:19:56Z")
J Bruce Ismay, 1862 The Titanic; White Star Line ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226/92 "2024-05-29T06:57:50Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > J Bruce Ismay, 1862 He’s now the third, after L Frank Baum and H Rider Haggard, who were both born in 1856. That is considerably later than the early double initial people. I’m going to guess that doing a single inital didn’t become a thing until around the turn of the 20th century. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226/93 "2024-05-29T12:28:35Z")
Yeah that’s probably what it is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-first-person-we-know-as-fi-middle-name-last-name/1001226.md?page=4)