Some people are Only Known By Their Nickname, others are on Last Name Basis, while some people are primarly known to the public by their initials or their initials plus their last name. The reasons may vary. Perhaps they have an Embarrassing First Name they'd rather not use, and maybe they have an Overly-Long Name that needs to be abbreviated. Others may think it sounds classier, and some may prefer the fact that it is more gender neutral.

This was particularly common among Real Life English male writers of the early 20th century, especially academics like A.J. Ayer (philosopher) and A.J.P. Taylor (historian). You do still find some English writers who go by initials today, possibly because of the resulting intellectual associations - like A.N. Wilson or D.J. Taylor.

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Examples Include

[[foldercontrol]] [[folder:Anime and Manga]]

• C.C. from Code Geass (its pronounced C-two)
  • The same goes for V.V.
• TK, In the dub version of Digimon, (his full name is Takeru Takaishi, in the Japanese, at least).
• Angel Beats has the American TK.

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[[folder: Comics]]

• BA (Boris Alphonso) Felton from Knights Of The Dinner Table

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[[folder:Film]]

• DC from That Darn Cat is only once referred to by a censored version of his full name, not counting the title, and is never refered to by his real full name, on account of it being profane.
• Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny: JB (Jack Black) and KG (Kyle Gass). Pronounced Jables and Kage.

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[[folder:Literature]]

• PK Pinkerton in Caroline Lawrence's Western Mysteries, is only known by the initials PK or by the nickname Pinky, as part of the authors attempt to create Ambiguous Gender.
• Subverted with Mr. A.E. Pessimal from Thud, as this is actually his full name.
• Superman: Last Son of Krypton. One of Lex Luthor's henchwomen is named Barbara Tolley, but insists on being called "B.J." even though her middle name is Arabella.
• Also subverted with BKR, the villain of Rod Albright Alien Adventures. This is his whole name, and none of the other aliens seems to think it odd.
• Robert Heinlein's The Number of the Beast. One of the characters is named D.T. ("Deety") Burroughs. She goes by her initials because she's embarrassed by her real first and middle names: Dejah Thoris (her father Jacob was a fan of the John Carter of Mars books).

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[[folder:Live Action TV]]

• JT (James Tiberius) Yorke from Degrassi The Next Generation.
  • Degrassi also has KC. Unlike JT, KC's full name has never been revealed.
• DJ (Donna Jo) Margaret Tanner from Full House.
• DJ (David Jacob) Connor from Roseanne.
• GOB (George Oscar Bluth) from Arrested Development.
• JJ (Jennifer Jureau) from Criminal Minds.
• B. J. Hunnicut from Mash. Lamp Shaded in an episode where Hawkeye tries to learn what "B. J." stands for, only to find "B. J." on all of his friend's military records. When Hawkeye asks who would name their kid "B. J.", B. J. answers "My mother, Bea and my father, Jay!"
• C.C. Babcock on The Nanny, as is much of her family (sister D.D., mother B.B.). Her full name, revealed in the finale, is Chastity-Claire Babcock
• JD (John Dorian) from Scrubs
• DJ from The Latest Buzz
• B.J. and the Bear. The title character B.J. (Billy Joe) McKay.
• B.A. Baracus on The A Team
• JJ (James Jr.) Evans from Good Times
• A.J. (Andrew Jackson) Simon from Simon and Simon.
• In The West Wing, Claudia Jean Cregg is nearly always referred to as CJ Cregg. The rare exceptions are usually either formal occasions or wry comments.

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[[folder:Music]]

• ZP Theart, former lead singer of DragonForce. Rumour has it that "ZP" is legally his first name, though.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]

• PJ from The Family Circus
• R.J in Over The Hedge
• B.D. from Doonesbury.

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[[folder:Theater]]

• Achibald MacLeish's modern take on the story of Job: Job (and the play) is called J.B.

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[[folder:Video Games]]

• Deus Ex has Mistah J.C. Denton in da flesh, which is actually a code name. This is a hold over from the development when it was an ambiguous name to support the option for a female PC (it was latter dropped to lack of space for the voice acting for her and the he/she brother/sister lines) and as a Significant Monogram.

[[folder:Western Animation]]

• Top Cat was always known as TC
• B.P. Richfield from Dinosaurs. Considering the way names are given in the DinosVerse, BP might be his actual name.
• TJ (Theodore Jasper) Detweiler from Recess
• In Arthur, the protagonist's little sister D.W. (short for Dora Winifred). Lampshaded in an episode where she gets lost in the White House and her parents are describing her to security - one of the agents says incredulously, 'You call your daughter by her initials?' (or words to that effect).
• J.T. Marsh from Exosquad.

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[[folder:Web Comics and Web Original]]

• PeeJee from Something Positive. Well, she's Penelope-Jennifer, but no one calls her so.
• T.C. "The Playah" from El Goonish Shive.

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[[folder:Real Life Writers]]

• Male
  • CS Lewis
  • E.E. Cummings
  • PG Wodehouse
  • JRR Tolkien
  • HP Lovecraft
  • GK Chesterton
  • T.S. Eliot.
  • J. F. (Jesse Franklin) Bone
  • A. E. (Alfred Elton) van Vogt
  • J.B.S. Haldane
• Female writers using initials to hide their sex
  • TV writer DC Fontana
    • "K.C. Hunter" from the Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode where Sisko hallucinates that he's a sci-fi writer in The Fifties is an homage
  • J. M. Dillard - really Jeanne Dillard Kalogridis
  • P. L. Travers (Mary Poppins series) - really Helen Lyndon Goff
  • C. L. (Catherine Lucille) Moore
  • Historian C. V. (Cicely Veronica) Wedgwood
  • JK Rowling - Partial example. Most people now know she is female, but apparently the idea was to use her initials on book covers so that boys would not be put of by a female author.
  • Professor M.A.R. (Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman) Barker, creator of the Empire of the Petal Throne/Tekumel Tabletop RPG setting.

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[[folder:Real Life Other Famous Individuals]]

• PT Barnum
• JEB Stuart
• M Night Shyamalan
• JP Morgan
• TK Carter,
• CCH Pounder
• JM J Bullock, who is only JM J because Jim J Bullock was already registered with the Screen Actors Guild
• New York Yankees pitcher C.C Sabathia.

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