Case ID: ark_12/html/0622-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice Soott", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The State vs. Smith.
    ¶51(3 knows of but one Christian name; and it is no misnomer to improperly include or exclude the initial of a middle name.
    
      Appeal from Conway Circuit Court.
    
    The defendant was indicted by the name of John B. Smith; and pleaded in abatement that he was known and called by the name of John Smith and not John B. Smith. The State demurred to the plea; but the Court overruled the demurrer and the State appealed.
    Clendenin, Attorney General.
    The law allows of but one Christian name; middle names are disregarded, (2 Cow. 463,) and their omission or insertion incorrectly cannot be pleaded in abatement. 5 John. R. 84.
   Mr. Justice Soott

delivered the opinion-of the Court.

The law knows of but one Christian name. The entire omission of a middle letter is not a misnomer or variance. (Litt. 3 a. 1 Lord Raym. 563. 5 John. R. 84. 4 John. R. 119 note a.) “The middle letter is immaterial, and a wrong letter may be stricken out or disregarded.” (Keene v. Meade, 3 Peters R. p. 9.) The demurrer ought to have been sustained and judgment rendered accordingly.

Let the judgment be reversed, and the cause be remanded,