The Meaning Behind 9 Famous Middle Initials
Styling your name to include a middle initial is far less common now than when it first became widely popular in the 19th century. As the U.S. saw a massive population boom, many people began using their middle initial to help distinguish themselves from other people with similar names. Throughout the 19th century and into the 20th century, abbreviating your middle name was popular among everyone from presidents to activists. Today, it’s hard to imagine John Rockefeller’s name without the “D” or Susan Anthony without the “B,” but at the same time, many people aren’t sure what those letters actually stand for. Here’s the meaning behind some of history’s most famous but mysterious middle initials.
John D. Rockefeller
Business magnate John D. Rockefeller’s name has long been associated with wealth, as he’s considered by some metrics to be the richest person in U.S. history. His last name came from his father, businessman and notorious con artist William Rockefeller Sr., but his middle initial stands for Davison, the maiden name of his mother, Eliza. The Davisons were Baptists of Scotch Irish descent who lived on a farm in central New York, near where William did business. Eliza and William married in 1837 and named their first son John Davison Rockefeller. As the young Rockefeller rose to prominence, he styled his name with the middle initial “D,” as was the fashion at the time. He later named his own son John Davison Rockefeller Jr. — a tradition that continued in future generations.
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Ulysses S. Grant
President Ulysses S. Grant was actually named Hiram Ulysses Grant when he was born on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio. At the age of 17, he adopted the middle initial “S,” though it wasn’t by choice. The initial was actually due to a clerical mistake at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 1839, Grant was nominated to West Point by Thomas Hamer, an Ohio congressman, who got confused while filling out the application. Hamer knew that Grant often went by Ulysses instead of Hiram, so he put “Ulysses” down as Grant’s first name. The application also required a middle initial, so Hamer wrote “S” for Simpson, the surname of Grant’s mother. Grant futilely tried to correct the error, but the name “Ulysses S. Grant” stuck. In an 1844 letter to his future wife Julia Dent, Grant wrote, “You know I have an ‘S’ in my name and don’t know what it stand for.”
Susan B. Anthony
Women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony was born just Susan Anthony on February 15, 1820. As middle initials became increasingly popular, she and her sisters had a “great craze for middle initials,” as Anthony later put it in an 1896 interview. As a young girl, she opted to start going by the name Susan B. Anthony, drawing inspiration from her aunt and namesake Susan Anthony Brownell. Anthony was said to dislike the full name Brownell, and preferred to use just the initial “B” for her own middle name.
Warren G. Harding
Gamaliel is the name of the wise man from Acts 5:34-40 of the New Testament — and it’s also the middle name of America’s 29th president, Warren G. Harding. His parents chose the name Gamaliel for their son as they were both religious Christians — Warren’s father, George, was a Baptist and his mother, Phoebe, was Methodist. Unfortunately, the Harding administration was marred by unwise decisions and unchecked corruption, leaving Harding’s legacy far less esteemed than that of his biblical namesake.
Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington was a prolific educator born into slavery in 1856 and freed during the Civil War. His mother, Jane, initially named her son Booker Taliaferro (pronounced “Tolliver”). This was a common surname in Virginia, where Jane and Booker lived at the time. However, the man who enslaved Booker refused to use the name Taliaferro, so the child was brought up unaware of his birth name. Booker later enrolled in school at the age of 16, and the school required its pupils to have a last name. He selected Washington, after his mother’s husband, Washington Ferguson. Booker later learned about his original surname from his mother, and he immediately adopted it as his new middle name. For the rest of his life, he went by the name Booker T. Washington.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Five-star General and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower is one of the most famous people in American history. He also has one of the most mysterious middle initials. His middle name is far less well known than, say, John Fitzgerald Kennedy or Lyndon Baines Johnson, yet the “D” simply stands for David, which was actually Eisenhower’s first name at birth. The man lovingly referred to as “Ike” was born David Dwight Eisenhower on October 14, 1890, to his parents David and Ida. However, his mother wanted to avoid confusion from having two Davids in the house, and chose to call her son by his middle name. From a young age, the boy went by the name Dwight at home, even though documents such as his high school yearbook listed him as “David Eisenhower.” As he entered adulthood, Eisenhower kept the name Dwight and shortened David to a middle initial.
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille is one of the founders of American cinema, as the visionary behind such legendary films as The Greatest Show on Earth and The Ten Commandments. He was born Cecil Blount de Mille on August 12, 1881, a name that honored both of his grandmothers. The name Cecil came from his maternal grandmother Cecilia Wolff, while Blount came from his paternal grandmother Margaret Blount Hoyt. As he rose to the top of the film world, Cecil styled his name with the middle initial “B.” He also changed the spelling of his last name: While he continued to use the name de Mille in private, he preferred the way DeMille looked in a professional sense.
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman is unique among U.S. presidents in that he’s the only one whose middle initial isn’t an abbreviation at all. His parents gave him the “S” to honor both of his grandfathers — Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young — but kept it to just that single letter. Because of this, Truman wrote his full name without a period after the “S” for most of his life, though that changed during his presidency. He was told by an editor for the Chicago Style Manual that omitting a period was bad grammar, and that it would potentially set a bad example for America’s youth. From then on, Truman signed his name as “Harry S. Truman.”
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin is among the most renowned science fiction authors of the 20th century, winning both the Hugo and Nebula awards for her 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness. Her middle initial “K” stands for her maiden name Kroeber, as she was born to Alfred and Theodora Kroeber in 1929 in Berkeley, California. Both of her parents were highly regarded anthropologists, and her father earned the first doctorate in anthropology ever awarded by Columbia University. Given their elite status in the world of academia, the Kroebers befriended many notable intellectual figures, including nuclear scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. (The “J” stands for Julius, his father’s name.) Ursula even based Shevek, the protagonist in her novel The Dispossessed, after her parents’ famous friend.
