Re^2: Do you have a middle name?

A good firend of mine has a similar story. It was common practice to use initials as names (for instance Harry S Truman), and his grandfathers name was R.B. Koch. When he was being processed through basic training, this happened:

NCO: Name?
Grandfather: R.B. Koch.
NCO: No initials. Name?
Grandfather: The initials are my name. I'm R.B. Koch.
NCO: The inital stands for something. What's your name?
Grandfather: It doesn't stand for something. It's R. only B. only Koch.

The story goes that from that day on he was called Ronly Bonly Koch.

Comment on Re^2: Do you have a middle name?

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Re^3: Do you have a middle name? by rowdog (Curate) on Dec 04, 2009 at 12:42 UTC
In the "South" (USA), there's a long tradition of giving the seventh son initials instead of a name. An old friend of mine was the seventh son of a seventh son and his name was WD. Recently I've met a couple of 20-something guys with initials instead of names so I guess the tradition lives on in Texas.	[reply]
Re^3: Do you have a middle name? by pmonk4ever (Friar) on Dec 03, 2009 at 21:47 UTC
The Military made such a big deal about names, but in reality, once you graduated Boot Camp, everyone called you by your last name, which was confusing for all the sailors named 'Jones' & 'Smith'!!! pmonk4ever "No trees were harmed in the creation of this node. However, a rather large number of electrons were somewhat inconvenienced."	[reply]