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Sjmarf@sh.itjust.works to Today I Learned@lemmy.worldEnglish · 1 year ago

TIL that the “S” in “Harry S. Truman” isn’t an abbreviation. His middle name was just “S”.

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TIL that the “S” in “Harry S. Truman” isn’t an abbreviation. His middle name was just “S”.

en.wikipedia.org

Sjmarf@sh.itjust.works to Today I Learned@lemmy.worldEnglish · 1 year ago
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Harry S. Truman - Wikipedia
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  • radix@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    There’s also Ulysses S. Grant. The “S” was apparently just a mistake on his enrollment at West Point. His birth name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. He tried to switch his first and middle names, but ended up with the initials USG instead of UHG.

    https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ulysses-S-Grant

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And then there’s the odd case of “Thomas a Becket.” Thomas Beket was never called Thomas a Becket in his lifetime. He apparently went by many names, one of which was “Beket,” but never “a Becket.”

      https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2023/research/thomas-a-becket-study/

      • Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, that’s just odd. ‘A’ isn’t something you’d find before a surname as part of the name, unlike ‘d’ or ‘o’ etc.

  • Crazyslinkz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Homer Jay Simpson Or Homer J. Simpson

    If his name is S why is there a period… like an abbreviation.

    • TOModera@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      People are used to adding periods so they just add it in.

      Source: My middle name is a letter.

      • WhyFlip@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Y?

        • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Y not?

          • jaybone@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Y not and x not is not y or x.

      • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I have a family member whose middle name is a letter. A friend of mine has two family members that only have initials for their first name (one was named for the other). When the older joined the army they just gave him a name that fit the initials and that went on all his official paperwork.

        • lol_idk@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Deleted

    • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Came here for this!

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbw3L3Lu1R4

  • kboy101222@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    I had a friend like this in college. His name was AJ. That’s it. Just the letters.

    Everyone in the department spent ages trying to guess what it stood for. I managed to glance his ID when we got lunch together once. His name was just AJ. There weren’t even periods marking it as an abbreviation.

    Still haven’t told anyone though

    • mrsemi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      deleted by creator

      • Peachfacedshredder@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Assuming those are in sequence, sucks to be the middle kid

        • NotInTheFace@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          sucks to be the middle kid

          I see what you did there.

        • mrsemi@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          deleted by creator

      • Podunk@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Names only an ancient roman could appreciate.

    • Threeme2189@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Did you call him Aj or A.J?

  • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    My grandpa’s name was Larry. I had always assumed it was short for Lawrence. I just found out recently like 8 years after he died that it wasn’t even short for that. Apparently my illiterate great grandparents wanted to name him Larrington (which I’m 90% sure isn’t even a first name in the lexicon). Apparently my great grandmother wanted him to grow up to be Larrington the Lawyer. My guess is that was a name of a local law firm she had heard of something because it definitely sounds like a surname that you would hear on a law office advert, (i.e. call Larrington and Mitchell). Turns out they couldn’t spell Larrington and just decided to name him Larry for short. So his fucking birth certificate has a nickname on it for a name he wasn’t even born as. My mind was fucking blown hearing this.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My dad’s name was the shortened version of a longer name and he said teachers in the prestigious British high school he went to (he went on scholarship, he wasn’t rich himself) continually insisted that his name must be the longer version no matter what he tried.

      He was also told, “children at this school go to Oxford or Cambridge” by his headmaster when he asked for a letter of recommendation when applying to Sheffield. He got into Sheffield anyway. Eventually got a PhD. Fuck that guy.

  • GrammarPolice@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That also reminds me of this one public speaker back in 30 A.D. Jesus H Christ. Apparently the H is just an H. Who woulda thought.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I thought H stood for Harold. As in, “our father, who art in heaven, Harold be thy name…”

      • JackFrostNCola@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Lano and Woodley fan by any chance?

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Never heard of them, sorry. I got that from an old Straight Dope article.

  • Phoenix3875@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    J Moore, the Moore in the wildly used Boyer-Moore string search algorithm, has a first name of a single letter, J. It’s not an abbreviation.

    • OlinOfTheHillPeople@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Moore enjoys rock climbing.[6]

      This might be the most concise paragraph I’ve ever seen on Wikipedia!

  • bravesirrbn ☑️@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Hairy Ass

  • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    A friend in high school had a middle name of “J”

    • teft@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

    • throbbing_banjo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My father’s middle name is J. Just the letter. His father’s name was JQ, just the letters.

  • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I used to work with a guy that was from China. He only had a first in a last name. He was going to college here and the college required everyone to have a middle initial as part of their login. They just used his last initial as his middle initial.

    • feannag@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I’ve usually seen NMN used for no middle name.

  • disdain@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Monkey D. Luffy type shit

  • 11111one11111@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’d tell people my middle name was “S” too if I were a boy middlenamed Sue. How do you do?!

  • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Back in the 90’s I worked for a guy whose first name is “H”.

    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Pronounced as Aitch or Haitch?

      • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Haitch

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