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I just read another good article by J. Guthrie in Guns & Ammo magazine, and was curious. What does the "J." stand for? If anyone has met him, does he go by something other than "J" when you speak to him in person? Just wondering why he would use other than his full name.

Everyone calls him "Guthrie". His name is James.

He must be a hell of a great guy. Probably smart and incredibly handsome as well. "James" in Idaho

Wouldn't be a bit conceited would he? ......

Probably the nicest guy you'll ever meet.

I wonder about the guys who go by their middle names but hang onto their first initial � obviously, it seems, to make their names sound more "impressive" or "distinguished."

J Edgar Hoover (Johnny Hoover?)
G Gordon Liddy (Gus Liddy?)

Would I have amounted to something if I'd called myself K Edgar Howell?

Good point Ken.
James Paul MacCarney agreed with you and dropped his Christian name altogether.

John

Dr. Ken:

It just so happens that I am reading "Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI" by Ronald Kessler. According to the author, as a young lawyer with a lot of ambition working at the fledgling Bureau of Investigation, Hoover went by John Hoover. But, apparently there were two John Hoovers in the D.C. area, and the other one bounced a check, which caused J. Edgar to be denied on an application for a credit card. Thus, he started going by his first initial to distance himself from the other John Hoover. Interesting book, by the way, but not very flattering for JEH. I don't know anything about Liddy's appellation.

I've always thought that the first initial business had a sort of antiquated charm. If you've read "Hell, I Was There" by Elmer Keith, (which I know you have probably dozens of times)he refers to people that he does not know well by their first initial and last name, kind of like an old-fashioned formality I suppose. Harvey Donaldson wrote the same way. Of course, these gentleman were referring to other people, and not themselves.

On my deputy sheriff's uniform, my name tag says simply G. Perry, and I got into the habit of signing all my reports as G. Perry/985, which was my badge number. Instead of making me feel distinguished, it made me feel just the opposite: that I wasn't important enough for my first name to matter.

I always thought G. Sitton sounded neat for a writer, kind of like O. Henry.

G. Perry

You related to B. Thurston Howell, III? (Or was that Thurston B. Howell, III?)

Ken, you're not fictional, are you?

Steve

Doesn't always work, though if somebody had gone by B. Hussein Obama it probably would have saved us a lot of money and a lot of grief.

I have no problem with using one's middle name instead of the first. But holding onto the first initial puzzles me. I have no problem with "Ed Hoover" or "Gordy Liddy," for example.

Uncle James Clingman Fountain lived a long life from boyhood on as Clingman Fountain. And his brothers too � Thomas Shepard was Shep � Walker Vaughn was Vaughn � Harold Stanley was Stanley. And my mother � Minnie Evelyn was Evelyn. When I was a forestry student at Auburn, a classy blonde class mate and campus queen was [Mary?/Betty?/Jane?/Gloria?] Battle King.

Two common practices in the old South were �
� using maternal family names as middle names
� using middle names in lieu of first names

Somewhere close in Battle King's lineage was obviously someone with the proud old Alabama name of Battle. (IIRC, Battle was then a prominent political name � governor, maybe? Senator?)

To be clear, "Guthrie" is the gentleman in-question's surname.