History Main / SignificantMonogram

* It is [[WordOfGod fully acknowledged by the author]] that HonorHarrington is Horatio Hornblower InSpace.

* ''{{The Wizard of Oz}}'' himself is named Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs. Because this is so long, he typically shortens it to O.Z.P.I.N.H.E.A.D., which he (for understandable reasons) further shortens to O.Z. Which is why he became the ruler of Oz.

* SignificantMonogram: The Scrooge character in ''A Christmas Carol'' is named '''S'''ardick, although his first name is Kazran. His father, however, was named '''E'''lliot, and was even Scrooge-ier than he is.

* BabylonFive's Jeffrey Sinclair and John Sheridan both share their initials with series creator JMichaelStraczynski.

* Jeremy Clarkson from {{TopGear}} mentions this during the Middle East Special when he begins to get delusions of grandeur near the Sea of Galilee.

* In the Book of Exodus 3:14, Moses asks the Burning Bush for a name, to which the Burning Bush responds with a phrase which translates (in English) into "I am who I am". The English equivalent for the Hebrew letters for the anagram of this response is "YHWH," or "Yahweh" (later translated as "Jehovah"), the name of the Hebrew God (although whether His name was "Yahweh" before or after this tradition is in dispute). This makes this trope OlderThanDirt.
** The Hebrew phrase used is ''`ehyeh `asher `ehyeh'' and the Hebrew acronym is aleph-aleph-aleph. YHWH (yod-heh-waw-heh) is the consonants of the name of god. The pronunciation of the vowels was lost. But I-am-that-I-am doesn't contain the waw of YHWH at all, and it's doesn't form YH*H as an acronym anyway.

* Jericho Cane in ''{{End of Days}}''.

* John Carter (of Mars). A messianic, immortal and {{anvilicious}}ly moral chap, who spent half the series inspiring coexistence and racial harmony on the world to which he came...

* Attorneys Lindsey [=MacDonald=], Lilah Morgan, Lee Mercer and Linwood Murrow, who share their initials with Lucifer Morningstar, on ''{{Angel}}''.

* Humorously played with/subverted/inverted in an episode of ''TheSimpsons'', "Marge in Chains" - when the Springfield Council can't afford a statue of AbrahamLincoln, they instead purchase one of JimmyCarter, initials JC. The people watching the unveiling immediately decry him as "history's greatest monster!" and cause a riot throughout town.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In ''TheRock'', SeanConnery plays secret agent John Mason, who has several similarities to Connery's [[JamesBond more famous character]], including their monograms, if you flip Mason's last initial 90 degrees.

* TomClancy's most famous hero, Jack Ryan, is one closed loop away from being a JB.

* By bisecting the "D," John Drake of ''Danger Man'' also becomes a JB.

* On ''{{House}}'', Gregory House shares a lot with SherlockHolmes, including potentially the monogram, when you consider how often stylized "G"s look like "S"s. Of course, House's sidekick James Wilson would have the same monogram as Holmes' Dr. John Watson in any style.

* Jericho Cane in ''EndOfDays''.
* Variation: In the film ''Greaser's Palace'', the character Jessy's name is often pronounced to sound like "JC." WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic?
* Joey Cusack, the [[spoiler:mobster who is "resurrected"]] in ''AHistoryOfViolence''.
* James Cole in ''TwelveMonkeys''.

* Jim Casy in ''TheGrapesOfWrath''.
* Jim Conklin in ''TheRedBadgeOfCourage''. Apparently, this wasn't intentional, but it inspired a lot of [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory crazy interpretations]].

* John Carter (of Mars). A messianic, immortal and anviliciously moral chap, who spent half the series inspiring coexistence and racial harmony on the world to which he came...
* Joe Christmas in ''ALightInAugust.''

* Jordan Collier on ''[[{{The4400}} The 4400]]''; he even [[spoiler: comes back from the dead]] at one point.
* British sketch show ''NotTheNineOClockNews'' ran a sketch parodying moral outrage at the film ''LifeOfBrian'', in which a self-proclaimed [[MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Pythonist]] accused TheBible of being a rip-off of Python lore, pointing out that the main character's initials were the same as those of John Cleese.

* Humourously played with/subverted/inverted in an episode of {{The Simpsons}}, ''Marge in Chains'' - when the Springfield Council can't afford a statue of Abraham Lincoln, they instead purchase one of Jimmy Carter, initials JC. The people watching the unveiling immediately decry him as "history's greatest monster!" and cause a riot throughout town.

[[folder:JB Spies and Other {{Shout Out}}s]]

* {{Tom Clancy}}'s most famous hero, Jack Ryan, is one closed loop away from being a JB.

* ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': James T. Kirk's monogram would be extremely close to that of President John F. Kennedy's, of whom series creator GeneRoddenberry was a known admirer.

* In a direct ShoutOut to this, the three PlayerArchetypes for ''AlphaProtocol'' were referred during its development as “the three [=JBs=]” (James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Jack Bauer.)

[[folder:{{Unfortunate Names}} and {{PunnyName}}s]]

* In ''HouseOfCards'', the author picked the name Francis Urquhart for the protagonist from the initials, "F.U."
* In ''HarryPotter and the Deathly Hallows'', [[spoiler:Harry's son, Albus Severus Potter]] has quite a good reason to be afraid of getting sorted into the snake-themed Slytherin. WordOfGod says it was intentional.
* In CharlesStross's Bob Howard series, a throw-away line reveals that geeky Bob's full initials are [[BastardOperatorFromHell B.O.F.H.]] (Another throw-away line reveals that his name is a pseudonym to protect his TrueName, suggesting that he picked his initials deliberately.)

* Pops up a few times in the ''DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' books: Peter Uteger ("P.U.") and Preston Mudd ("P. Mudd") are subject to teasing by their middle school peers. Greg proudly takes credit for the former incident.
* TheWizardOfOz himself is named Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs. Because this is so long, he typically shortens it to O.Z.P.I.N.H.E.A.D., which he (for understandable reasons) further shortens to O.Z. Which is why he became the ruler of Oz.

* In ''OnlyFoolsAndHorses'', Del Boy names his son Damien Derek Trotter. Rodney points out that this makes his initials DDT.

* Nineteenth-century military buff Hiram U. Grant was reportedly [[GenderBlenderName always embarrassed by the weak-sounding implications of his monogram]]. That is until his application for West Point, when his Congressman, who nominated him for acceptance, apparently mistook his middle name for his first name and his mother's maiden name for his middle initial and submitted him under the much more patriotic initials "Ulysses S. Grant," which Hiram kept throughout the remainder of his career as general and later as president.
* 1950s BMovie director Bert I. Gordon, who specialized in [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever giant monster movies.]]

-->Hank: Mr. Holloway, this is the only man ever censured by the Texas Propane Association, for [[{{Foreshadowing}} lewdness and conduct unbecoming]] a propane salesman.
-->M.F. Thatherton: M.F. Thatherton. Thatherton Fumes.
-->Mr. Holloway: Dang glad to meet you, M.F.
-->Hank: [[CurseCutShort The M.F. stands for--]]
-->M.F. Thatherton: [[InvertedTrope My friend!]]

[[folder:{{Author Avatar}}]]

* [[{{Ptitle3tzv6fw4}} Philip José Farmer]] has had two characters with the same initials in his works: Peter Jairus Frigate in the ''Riverworld'' novels and Paul Janus Finnegan in the ''World of Tiers'' series.

* CharlesDickens was reportedly very surprised when a reader pointed out that the initials of the title character in DavidCopperfield (a quasi-autobiographical novel) are Dickens' own, reversed. (There's also a Charles Darnay in ATaleOfTwoCities.)

* In the Book of Exodus 3:14, Moses asks the Burning Bush for a name, to which the Burning Bush responds with a phrase which translates (in English) into "I am who I am". The English equivalent for the Hebrew letters for the anagram of this response is "YHWH," or "Yahweh" (later translated as "Jehovah"), the name of the Hebrew God. (Although whether His name was "Yahweh" before or after this tradition is in dispute.) This makes this trope OlderThanDirt.

* In {{Halo}} 3: [=ODST=], the Rookie's initials are JD. He has no voice (besides for [[StealthPun grunting]]) and no face. JD could stand for John Doe. This would also mean we would have 2 Johns. Add this with the Spartan Clone Training facility description for a map in Halo 1 (all MP maps/descriptions in Halo are canon) and we may have a John-117 clone. Could explain his John levels of luck.
* In ''CityOfHeroes'', the Longbow officer in charge of operations in the Rikti War Zone is Wilhelmina Marlena Dietrich (WMD).

* In the Library of Congress Classification scheme used by most college and university libraries in the U.S. and Canada, Bibles and Bible commentaries are shelved under call numbers starting with the letters [[UnfortunateImplications "BS"]]. At the reference desk, we'd tell students to use the memetic [[DeadpanSnarker "Bible Studies"]].

* Florida University.
** [[DidNotDoTheResearch Nice try]]. It's actually "University of Florida" for this precise reason.
** Similarly, the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley is actually in the adjacent town of Kensington, California.
** This troper knows of a Finlandia University.
* In the Netherlands, we have "Katholieke Universiteit Tilburg" (Catholic University of Tilburg), the initials of which spell out the Dutch word for [[spoiler:cunt.]]

->''Moreover, as high school English teachers never tire of observing, the innocence of martyred fictional characters bearing the initials "JC" must never be questioned. Indeed, as we first discover about an hour into The Green Mile, this particular JC bears mysterious powers of healing, as well as monumental capacities for sympathy and forgiveness, that make his Biblical heritage even harder to ignore or, for filmgoers who prefer not to be beaten over the head, to put up with.''

* John Cotton in ''Bless The Beasts And Children''.

The most common SignificantMonogram, of course, is "JC," most often seen on the SacrificialLamb, TheMessiah, TheObiWan or TheHero. Those initials can be found everywhere from Jesse Custer in ''{{Preacher}}'' to Jiminy Cricket in ''{{Pinocchio}}'' to John Connor in ''TheTerminator'' and its sequels to [[DeusEx JC Denton]]. When those specific initials are used unintentionally and in a completely [[UnfortunateImplications discordant manner with the character's role in the story]], they can often lead to an almost literal EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory situation.

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<<|NamingConventions|>>
<<|ShoutOutsIndex|>>

* In the Book of Exodus 3:14, Moses asks the Burning Bush its name, to which the Burning Bush responds with a phrase which translates (in English) into "I am who I am." The English equivalent for the Hebrew letters for the anagram of this response is "YHWH," or "Yahweh" (later translated as "Jehovah"), the name of the Hebrew god. (Although whether his name was "Yahweh" before or after this tradition is in dispute.) This makes this trope OlderThanDirt.

* The initials of the lead couple (JS and D) also match the initials of JMS and his wife at the time, Kathryn Drennan.