initials

   People are quite often addressed in English-speaking countries by a set of initials, or by a single initial letter. The set of initials is associated by many with American business practice. In Graham Greene’s short story Men at Work occurs:’ “It’s H.G.’, she explained to Skate. All the junior staff called people by initials: it was a sort of social compromise, between a Christian name and a Mr.’

   This may well have been a reason for such usage, helped along no doubt by the business practice of signing memos and other documents with one’s initials. However, the initials used in direct address are often those of a person’s first name and middle name, not his last name, Carole, by Charles Frank, has: ‘I asked for silence and addressed J.J.Carpa, not with the usual J.J. but the formal “Mr Carpa”.’ In The Business of Loving, by Godfrey Smith, the central character P.J.Benedict is addressed by an employee as P.J. This business usage can be transferred to other environments. ‘We have a little domestic joke, Cornelia and I,’ says the narrator in The Tunnel of Love, by Peter de Vries. ‘I call her C.B. Like a vicepresident.’ In Teresa, by Frank Baker, a wife occasionally uses her husband’s initials when speaking to him. The author says that she does so ‘quite deliberately, when she means business’. In The House with the Green Shutters, by George Douglas, which is set in Scotland, there is a character called James Wilson who puts up a poster to advertise his business. After the opening sentence he refers to himself as ‘J.W.’ ‘He was known as “J.W.” ever after. To be known by your initials is sometimes a mark of affection, and sometimes a mark of disrespect. It was not a mark of affection in the case of our “J.W.”’

   In The Affair, by C.P.Snow, a character called G.S. Clark is addressed by everyone, including his wife, as ‘G.S.’ No explanation of this usage is offered, and the man concerned is certainly not a businessman, but the initials are used as if they constituted his first name. Blanche, by Nicolas de Crosta, has the central character addressing her father, as she has done ‘from her earliest youth’, as ‘old J.J.’ His name is James Johnson.

   C. Northcote Parkinson had commented on the use of initials within an institution other than a business house:

   The Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, remained Edwardian to a surprisingly late period of its history. One of many unwritten rules in its earlier days was that masters, blessed (naturally) with private means, should also have double-barrelled names, preferably conveying a hint of naval ancestry. They were known to each other by their initials, but these were strictly those of the double-barrel, ParkerFoley being P.F., his G. (for George) being silent. For all sorts of official and social purposes P.F. was indication enough.

   Some sets of initials, of course, are especially meaningful. In A Temporary Life, by David Storey, there is a man called R.N. Wilcox. The initials cause him to be known to everyone as ‘Skipper’, as if the ‘R.N.’ were letters written after his name, indicating a Royal Navy background. No doubt many real-life nicknames are inspired by sets of initials in this way. It can sometimes happen that initial letters are given as names in their own right. There was the famous example of Harry S.Truman, where ‘S.’ was a name, in that his parents never expanded it to reveal what it stood for. Carson McCullers, in Reflections in a Golden Eye, writes:

   The name he used in the army was not his own. On his enlistment a tough old sergeant had glared down at his signature - L.G. Williams - and then bawled out at him: ‘Write your name, you snotty little hayseed, your full name!’ The soldier had waited a long time before revealing the fact that those initials were his name, and the only name he had. ‘Well, you can’t go into the U.S.Army with a goddamn name like that,’ the sergeant said. ‘I’ll change it to E-l-l-g-e-e. OK?’

   There have been many real-life examples similar to this.

   By contrast, there are many people who bear normal first names but are addressed as if they bear only initials. The diminutive form of Euphemia is Eph. In Arthur, by Gordon McGill, the writer says that as a child he was convinced that his aunt Euphemia was called ‘F.’ There are those whose name is Beatrice who became ‘Bee’ in direct address, Emily may become ‘Em’, and so on. But in Thomas, by H.B.Creswell. the central character is ‘poor old T.’ to one speaker, and in Ngaio Marsh’s A Surfeit of Lampreys, a nobleman addresses a woman called Violet as ‘V.’ The initial used may be that of the last name. Mr René Quinault, for example, for many years a BBC official, has always been known as ‘Q.’ to his friends and colleagues. Perhaps not everyone would appreciate being addressed by an initial or initials. Oscar Wilde, for example, would have been most upset. Hesketh Pearson, in The Life of Oscar Wilde, relates that an American once entered his name as O.Wilde in a club visitors’ book. Wilde protested: ‘Who is O.Wilde? Nobody knows O.Wilde. But Oscar Wilde is a household word.’