[Purdue-pm] J(only) B(only) is urban legend

[Phillip SanMiguel]

/From snopes.com:

[Reader's Digest, 1958]/

My friend R.B. Jones doesn't have a first or middle name -- only the 
initials R.B. This unusual arrangement was never a problem until he went 
to work for a government agency. The government is not accustomed to 
initialed employees, so R.B. had a lot of explaining to do. On the 
official forms for the payroll and personnel departments, his name was 
carefully entered as R (Only) B (Only) Jones.

Sure enough, when R.B. got his pay check, it was made out to Ronly Bonly 
Jones.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

/[Cerf, 1959]/

There turned up in the Navy a recruit who had neither a first name nor a 
middle name: just Jones — plus the initials R.B. The government took a 
dim view of this unusual nomenclature and entered his name officially as 
R (only) B (only) Jones. Sure enough, when RB's first pay check came 
rolling in, it was made out to Ronly Bonly Jones!

This name is likely apocryphal although many have claimed their fathers 
knew someone similarly afflicted (i.e., Jonly Bonly Stuart, Bonly Nonly 
Jones, Nonly Monly Jones, Gonly Bonly Jones).