this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2024
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Today I Learned

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[–] Raiderkev 2 points 6 minutes 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.

[–] 11111one11111 7 points 2 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago

Harry "Cool S" Truman

[–] bravesirrbn 9 points 7 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 30 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago

Have an old friend/colleague with the last name Oh, share the same first name, so at work we would always say, John S., John D, John O type of deal, for some reaosn it would keep me wondering if we were really saying Oh or O. For him. (John isn't really the first name, just an example)

[–] [email protected] 42 points 15 hours ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

Now I want to name a kid Ay-Jay.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

Did you call him Aj or A.J?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Reminds me of the character BJ in M*A*S*H. Named after his parents, Bee and Jay

[–] mrsemi 35 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

My stoner friend's incredibly, unbelievably stupid girlfriend has kids from a previous relationship named AJ, BJ, and CJ.

you have now made me suspect they are not abbreviations.

[–] Podunk 4 points 2 hours ago

Names only an ancient roman could appreciate.

[–] peachfaced 44 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

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

[–] NotInTheFace 25 points 13 hours ago

sucks to be the middle kid

I see what you did there.

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[–] linearchaos 18 points 14 hours ago (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 hours ago (7 children)

Wait does everyone there have a middle name? I'm Dutch and I don't have a middle name. I figured that was quite common also in the English speaking world

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 minutes ago

I don’t have either. Maybe it’s a murican thing

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

My grandfather and father dont have a middle name.

Both Sicilian (Father born in the U.S though)

[–] DontRedditMyLemmy 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

The famous poet Edgar Poe also didn't have a middle name

[–] olafurp 2 points 2 hours ago

He does, it's Allan

[–] UniversalFlamingo 2 points 8 hours ago

I have two. You can borrow one for a while.

[–] linearchaos 3 points 10 hours ago

He's the only person I've known here in almost 50 years without a middle name. It's quite possible other people haven't had a middle name but it's never come up.

[–] someguy3 2 points 9 hours ago

Not that I'm aware of Gerry F. Flap.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I knew that middle names are common in the US but I didn't know it's so deep in the culture

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

One of those things that’s just normal so we don’t talk about it I guess.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

Is a middle name mandatory for you?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago

What else would your mom call you when she's pissed off?

[–] JusticeForPorygon 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

I think so, when immigrants get IDs in the US I believe they choose/are given a middle name

[–] ylph 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Not true, I am a naturalized US citizen, and don't have a middle name - it was never an issue and I was never asked to come up with one. My son was born in the US and also doesn't have a middle name.

[–] raef 2 points 2 hours ago

My cousin was given his mother's maiden name as a middle name when he joined the navy

[–] linearchaos 6 points 10 hours ago

I don't know that it's absolutely mandatory but it's definitely pervasive.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 13 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 hours ago

Poor Alex Song (A.S.S.)

[–] radix 72 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] FlyingSquid 31 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (4 children)

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/

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[–] Crazyslinkz 55 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

Homer Jay Simpson Or Homer J. Simpson

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

[–] TOModera 30 points 17 hours ago (4 children)

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

Source: My middle name is a letter.

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[–] Phoenix3875 19 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

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 10 points 14 hours ago

Moore enjoys rock climbing.[6]

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

[–] GrammarPolice 26 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

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.

[–] FlyingSquid 36 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] JackFrostNCola 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Lano and Woodley fan by any chance?

[–] FlyingSquid 2 points 7 hours ago

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

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