List of people known by initials
This is a list of people famous enough to be known unambiguously by their initials:
- BB, French Actress Brigitte Bardot
- BHL, French philosopher
- DSK, French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn
- E2R, Queen of the United Kingdom
- FDR, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- H.D, U.S. Imagist poet Hilda Doolittle
- IDS, British politician Iain Duncan Smith
- JFK, U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
- JWZ, Free software programmer Jamie Zawinski
- J2M, former CEO of Vivendi-Universal Jean-Marie Messier
- LBJ, U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson (It must be noted that Johnson so liked his initials that his children and dogs all had them, and he nicknamed his wife Lady Bird so she could have them too)
- LT, member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Lawrence Taylor
- L, Linnaeus, founder of modern systematics, cited by biologists simply as (L) when referenced as author (first official describer) of a species. Note that (L) is truly understood to stand for the man Linnaeus himself, in contrast to an SI unit name like N, which does not stand for the man Newton, but for a physical unit spelled in lower-case that is named in honor of the man Newton.
- MJ, U.S. basketball legend Michael Jordan
- MLK, U.S. civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr.
- OJ, U.S. football player, movie actor, and murder suspect O. J. Simpson
- PPDA, French journalist Patrick Poivre d'Arvor
- Q, British writer Arthur Quiller-Couch
- RAH, U.S. Science fiction author Robert Heinlein
- RFK, U.S. politician Robert F. Kennedy
- RMS, Free Software advocate Richard Stallman
- TR, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
- UKK, Finnish longtime president and strongman Urho Kaleva Kekkonen
- W.L, ficticious name given to real life Ugandan crime victim that journalist Caroline Moorehead wrote about
Borderline Cases
- ALF, extraterrestrial TV character Alien Life-Form [sic]
- BOD, Irish rugby player Brian O'Driscoll
- Eminem ("M 'n' M"), U.S. Rapper Marshall Mathers
- "Dubya, U.S. President George W. Bush (based on his Texan pronunciation of the letter W, which distinguishes him from his father)
- J. Lo, U.S. pop musician Jennifer Lopez
- J.D, Canadian-born journalist John Roberts was known as J.D. when host of The New Music on City TV
- HergÃÂé ("R. G." in French), Belgian comics author Georges Remi
- LB, basketball legend Larry Bird, who usually gives autographs using only his initials.
- ODB, U.S. rapper "Ol' Dirty Bastard"
- TAFKAP, U.S. soul singer Prince, abbreviation for The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, which replaced an unpronounceable symbol as his name. He has since reverted to using his first name of Prince.
Individuals known always or for the most part by initials and surname
- P. T. Anderson
- W. H. Auden
- J. L. Austin
- A. J. Ayer
- J. M. Barrie
- H. E. Bates
- P. T. Barnum
- C. E. W. Bean
- L. L. Bean
- W. A. C. Bennett
- E. C. Bentley
- T. C. Boyle
- A. S. Byatt
- J. J. Cale
- G. K. Chesterton
- C. B. Cochrane
- D. B. Cooper
- e. e. cummings
- R. D. Darrell
- F. W. de Klerk
- E. L. Doctorow
- W. E. B. Du Bois
- T. S. Eliot
- M. C. Escher
- A. A. Fair
- W. C. Fields
- C. S. Forester
- E. M. Forster
- A. J. Foyt
- T. G. I. Friday
- H. R. Giger
- W. S. Gilbert
- A. A. Gill
- W. G. Grace
- J. G. Hamann
- W. C. Handy
- L. P. Hartley
- P. J. Harvey
- P. J. Hogan
- L. J. Hooker
- A. D. Hope
- A. E. Housman
- E. F. Hutton
- A. Y. Jackson
- P. D. James
- C. E. M. Joad
- C. G. Jung
- J. M. Keynes
- B. B. King
- H. H. Kung
- R. D. Laing
- k. d. lang
- D. H. Lawrence
- T. E. Lawrence
- C. I. Lewis
- C. S. Lewis
- H. P. Lovecraft
- P. P. McGuinness
- E. J. Moeran
- P. J. O'Rourke
- D. B. C. Pierre
- E. G. Marshall
- A. A. Milne
- R. J. Mitchell
- L. M. Montgomery
- J. P. Morgan
- V. S. Naipaul
- bpNichol
- I. M. Pei
- E. J. Pratt
- J. B. Priestley
- W. V. (O.) Quine
- A. R. Rahman
- B. A. Robertson
- L. T. C. Rolt
- J. K. Rowling
- A. L. Rowse
- J. D. Salinger
- R. C. Sherriff
- O. J. Simpson
- B. F. Skinner
- E. E. "Doc" Smith
- F. E. Smith
- O. C. Smith
- W. H. Smith
- C. P. Snow
- J. I. M. Stewart
- A. J. P. Taylor
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- P. L. Travers
- J. M. W. Turner
- J. T. Walsh
- H. G. Wells
- E. B. White
- T. H. White
- R. M. Williams
- J. C. Williamson
- P. G. Wodehouse
- W. B. Yeats
- P.G.T. Beauregard
Individuals known by an initial, middle name and surname
- F. Murray Abraham
- F. Lee Bailey
- L. Frank Baum
- R. Lee Ermey
- H. Rider Haggard
- J. Edgar Hoover
- C. Thomas Howell
- L. Ron Hubbard
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- D. Wayne Lukas
- W. Somerset Maugham
- K. Alex MÃÂüller (born 1927), 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics
- J. Arthur Rank
- M. Night Shyamalan
Individuals known by first name and an initial as a surname
- Andrea F, Slovene TV narrator.
- Christiane F
- Kenny G
- Jonas *, Slovene actor and TV journalist.
- Malcolm X
Individuals whose use of their middle initial carries special significance
- Iain M. Banks
- World B. Free, basketball player
Fictional Characters
- CJ, Reggie's boss in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
- E.T, alien
- JR, fictional shooting victim on television's Dallas
- J.R. Hartley, character in British Yellow Pages commercial that became a cult figure.
- TJ, little boy in movie The Champ
- TC, usual appellation for Top Cat