List of Presidential name origins

This is a list of Presidential name origins.

Presidential name origins

Presidential first, middle, and last names

First names

Six Presidents went by their middle names or nicknames in lieu of their official first names

• James Earl Carter, Jr. went by Jimmy
• William Jefferson Clinton went by Bill
• John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. went by Calvin
• Stephen Grover Cleveland went by Grover
• Thomas Woodrow Wilson went by Woodrow
• Hiram Ulysses Grant went by Ulysses

Duplicates and multiples

There have been:

• (6) James
• (5) John
• (4) William
• (3) George
• (2) Andrew, Franklin, Thomas

Length

• Rutherford is the longest Presidential first name at 10 letters.
• John and Bill are the shortest Presidential first names at four letters.
• The average length in letters of commonly used Presidential first names is 6.14 letters.

Middle names

• Three Presidents used their middle name as their given name:

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. went by Calvin

Stephen Grover Cleveland went by Grover

Thomas Woodrow Wilson went by Woodrow

• Seventeen of the 42 presidents to date have no known middle name.
• Franklin Pierce is sometimes referred to as, "Franklin K. Pierce": the 'K' possibly standing for his mother's maiden name of Kendrick. However, there is no evidence that Pierce was given a middle name at birth or ever used a middle name or middle initial.
• Several Presidential middle names were originally surnames: Baines, Birchard, Delano, Fitzgerald, Walker, Knox, Milhous, Quincy, and Simpson, et al. Most of these were the President's mother's maiden name.
• Gerald Rudolph Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. therefore giving him the middle name of Lynch before his mother remarried when he was three years old; his name was not legally changed until 1935 while in law school.
• Ulysses S. Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant. His name was changed when he entered the United States Military Academy.
• Harry S. Truman's middle name was only an initial; the "S" didn't stand for another name. Nevertheless he signed his name using the period after the letter.
• George Herbert Walker Bush is the only President with two middle names.
• There are no duplicate Presidential middle names, with the partial exception of Herbert Walker and Walker.

Last names

• There have been two Adamses, two Bushes, two Harrisons, two Johnsons, and two Roosevelts. All of the pairs except the Johnsons were related to each other (see List of United States Presidents by genealogical relationship).
• Thirty-three of the Presidents have had unique last names.
• Eisenhower and Washington had the longest last names, with 10 letters each.
• The Bushes, Taft, Polk, and Ford had the shortest last names, with four letters each.
• The average Presidential last name has 6.64 letters.
• The only two-word last name is Van Buren. Van is a surname prefix common to people of Dutch or Belgian ancestry.
• Only three of the ten most common surnames (Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, Brown, Davis, Miller, Wilson, Moore, and Taylor) in the United States have been the surnames of Presidents (Johnson, Andrew and Lyndon; Wilson, Woodrow; and Taylor, Zachary).

"Juniors"

Twelve presidents were complete namesakes of their fathers':

1. John Adams, Jr.
2. James Madison, Jr.
3. Andrew Jackson (it is unknown if he ever went by "Jr.")
4. John Tyler, Jr.
5. James Buchanan, Jr.
6. William McKinley, Jr.
7. Theodore Roosevelt, born Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.
8. John Calvin Coolidge, Jr.
9. Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.
10. James Earl Carter, Jr.
11. Bill Clinton, born William Jefferson Blythe III
12. Barack Hussein Obama II

George Walker Bush does not share the exact same name of his father, George Herbert Walker Bush, as does John Quincy Adams with his father John Adams.

Sources

DeGregario, William A. The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents. Barricade Books, 1991.

See also

• List of United States Presidential nicknames