The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1896-08-29
FULLY EXPANDED NAMES.
Progress of the Custom of Using Full
Names Instead of Initials.

Names Instead OF Initials.
A recent protest addressed to the Sun
against the expansion of the late II. c.
Burners name serves to call attention
to the fact that the habit of using Chris
tian nGmeS in full is comparatively new
in this country. The habit of bestow-
ing mCrt than one Christian name upon
a child VAS not usual 100 or $50 years
ago. Colonial worthie, usually had a
single Christian name. Few famous
men OF the revolutionary period bore
more than one Christian name. John
Quincy Adams was the first president
with Il middle name, and 1G presidents
were blessed with but one single name
each. Every president but one since
Johnson. however. has had two Chris
tian names, for Grover Cleveland con-
ccais a baptismal Stephen.
Few literary men of the colonial PC
riod and of he republics early years
bore middle names. Cotton Mather,
John Cotton, Benjamin Franklin. Joel
Barlow and Thomas Payne at once coIne
10 mind. William Writ, Washington
Irving and Philip Freneau are later cX-
amples of the same kind. Perhaps it
wa the desire to preserve a record of
revolutionary and colonial ancestors
h a led to the giving of two or more
Christian James in the first quarter of
the century and earlier. At any rate,
men with such names began to be con-
s]picuous in politics. literature, art. the
church and most other fields before the
middle of the century. Edgar Allan
Poe would hardly be recognizable mas
q~uerading under bare initials. Charles
Fenno Hoffman would look equally
strange as c. +. Hoffman. and so of two
or three other men of the time. But :he
use of the full first and middle name
vas nOt general.
The usual thing was the full Christian
name with the middle initial, and this
usage vas so we'll recognized. especially
rs characteristic of politicians, rhat
Lowelrs John i. Robinson was IN
stantly accepted as the exactly proper
cognomcn for the character portrayed.
Those were the days of the James J.
Folks. the Thomas ii. BcntOns and the
Paul II. Haynes. though the old-tjmc
simplicity of single Christian names
had not altogether disappeared. Even
II. W. L0ngfrllow is not an unfamiliar
form. Whittier was widely knowh to
his cOuntrymen as John c.. and several
other famous men who lived well Oh tC
the end of the century were popularity
known by their Initials only, or by the
first name and middle initial. James
Russell Lowell, who is always spoken OF
thus at full. habitual;v signed his let
tiers -. Il. Lowell" He was seldom
called by his cOuntrymen, as the Eng
lish called him. Russell Lowell"
The taste for using The full first and
middle name seems to be confined in
this country TO literary and more orless
fashionable persons. It is still unusual
in politics and in business. 1t is almost
general among the literary men that
have begun to attract attention within
the last - or Is years. Mr.. Howells is
oftener William Dean HOwells than he
of Frank St0cktoD's books know what
his middle initial, r." stands for? So
ciety believes itself English in using the
full first and middle names, but, a. a
matter of fact, the usage. save in a for
NAL way. is less common in Great Brit
ain than most persons think. Indeed,
the ~bcstowing Of a single Christian
name seems TO be more usual there than
here, and while in this country the us6
of a single initial is accepted almost as
evidence of i%lliteracy. it is 10 unusual
among distinguished and highly accom-
plished men in Great Britain. An eX-
animation Of distinguished British
names from the fourteenth century to
the present time would show compare
lively few double Christian names. In
literature the men with more than one
Christian Eame are chiefly con
to the present century. and after
Shelly. Colerid@e and Swinburne
have been named. those of two Chris
tian names are rare.-N. y. Sun.