Schwarzkopf was born Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. on August 22, 1934, in Trenton, New Jersey, to Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Sr. and Ruth Alice (née Bowman). His father was a 1917 graduate of the United States Military Academy and veteran of World War I. His mother was a housewife from West Virginia who was distantly related to Thomas Jefferson. The senior Schwarzkopf later became the founding Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, where he worked as a lead investigator on the 1932 Lindbergh baby kidnapping case. In January 1952, the younger Schwarzkopf's birth certificate was amended to make his name "H. Norman Schwarzkopf", reportedly because his father detested his first name. The younger Schwarzkopf had two elder sisters, Ruth Ann and Sally Joan.