"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."
A monogram is a symbol made from two or more letters — usually a person's initials. Sometimes a character's personality or destiny is indicated by his or her full name, whether it be a Steven Ulysses Perhero or a Louis Cypher. Sometimes, however, the character's full name seems perfectly ordinary, until you spot his or her monogram on a handkerchief or pen and find a funny "coincidence". This trope is about when a character's initials bear some significance to the story.
The most common Significant Monogram, of course, is "JC," most often seen on the Sacrificial Lamb, Messianic Archetype, or The Hero. Those initials can be found everywhere from Jesse Custer in Preacher to Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio to John Connor in The Terminator and its sequels to JC Denton to Julius Caesar.note When those specific initials are used unintentionally and in a completely discordant manner with the character's role in the story, they can often lead to an almost literal Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory situation.
However, sometimes initials may be used as a Shout-Out to another, pre-existing fictional character. It's almost certainly not a coincidence that so many fictional super-spies in the late 20th and early 21st century have had the initials "JB" (Jason Bourne, Jack Bauer, Jack Bristow, et al.) And sometimes the similarities may be subliminal or completely unintentional, as for instance with Gene Roddenberry's dashing, womanizing, handsome young hero who first debuted in 1966. Although ostensibly named after Capt. James Cook, his "JTK" monogram would be merely a stroke and a half away from the commonly-used monogram for a certain dashing, womanizing, handsome young president who had been martyred, in the eyes of many Americans, merely three years previously. Er... probably. In many cases, initials may be used to indicate an Author Avatar.
Compare to Significant Anagram, Meaningful Name, and Fun with Acronyms. Distinguished from Theme Initials in that Theme Initials are used for multiple characters in a story or universe and may have no significance outside of their recurrence, whereas Significant Monograms may be used for only one character in a story but refer to someone or something outside of that story. However, when Significant Monograms are used for multiple characters in a universe or work of fiction, it may easily become a case of Theme Initials.
It can also become an unfortunate name, particularly if other characters remark upon such initials as "BS," "ASS" or "FU." Often in comedies, an Embarrassing First Name or Embarrassing Middle Name may be employed to complete the monogram.
Examples:
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JC and Other Variations
Comic Books
- Jesse Custer in Preacher. Gets Lampshaded by Tulip towards the end of the series run, with much good-natured mockery.
- Supergod has one super named Jerry Craven, who is obviously meant to allude to the more famous JC, though it seems the author decided to go for the most humiliating possible version, since "Jerry" is either a rat or a comedian, and "Craven" means coward. Ultimately, this J.C. fails to save anyone.
- John Constantine and several other key characters in Hellblazer.
- John Connor in the Terminator franchise, the future savior of humanity from the machines.
- Jericho Caine in End of Days.
- There's a Jericho Cane (real name Boxer Santoros) in Southland Tales, who turns out to be the Antichrist.
- Variation: In the film Greaser's Palace, the character Jessy's name is often pronounced to sound like "JC." What do you mean it's not symbolic?
- Joey Cusack, the mobster who is "resurrected" in A History of Violence. Subverted in that "Joey" is the exact opposite of Messianic.
- James Cole in 12 Monkeys.
- John Carpenter in "The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)"
- John Coffey in both novel and film The Green Mile.
- In his book On Writing, Stephen King notes how he hit on the name... and then gently mocks the critics who chastised him for going with the obvious initials. "Well, duh! It's not rocket science, guys."
- Jenny Curran in both novel and film Forrest Gump.
- Jim Casy in The Grapes of Wrath.
- Jim Conklin in The Red Badge of Courage. Apparently, this wasn't intentional, but it inspired a lot of crazy interpretations.
- John Cotton in Bless the Beasts & Children.
- Jerry Cornelius and his dozens of incarnations in the Eternal Champion series. You know it's him because his initials are JC.
- 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 Light in August.
- Joshua Calvert in The Night's Dawn Trilogy.
- Johnny Cade of The Outsiders.
- Jack Crow of "Armor" and "Vampire$".
- Jonathan Christopher "Jace" Wayland /Morgenstern/Herondale/Lightwood in The Mortal Instruments.
- Johannes Cabal in Johannes Cabal the Necromancer.
- John Crichton from Farscape certainly has some messianic qualities: a non-corporeal god-like creature who took the form of his father gave him some pretty powerful powers; he is a an outcast in a strange land who likes to contrast his morality with others; also he has a perchance for self-sacrifice.
- Jordan Collier on The 4400; he even comes back from the dead at one point.
- British sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News ran a sketch parodying moral outrage at the film Monty Python's Life of Brian, in which a self-proclaimed Pythonist accused The Bible of being a rip-off of Python lore, pointing out that the main character's initials were the same as those of John Cleese.
- Firefly: Jayne! The man they call Jayne! Jayne Cobb not only bears the initials, but in "Jaynestown", we're introduced to a village that worships him as a folk hero.
- John Casey from Chuck, who's often tempted to cross to the dark side but always stays loyal to the good guys. Although since he's played by Adam Baldwin, the initials could very well be a Shout-Out to Firefly—the show is just full of them.
- Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear mentions this during the Middle East Special when he begins to get delusions of grandeur near the Sea of Galilee.
Music
- Jarvis Cocker refers to his own initials in the first line of Pulp's The Dishes, and then compares himself to Jesus in the chorus — "I am not Jesus, though I have the same initials... I'd like to make this water wine, but it's impossible."
- Kilroy Was Here features a character leading a pro-rock resistance named Jonathan Chance. Kind of like John Connor in The Terminator, except Kilroy actually came out more than a year earlier.
- The Powderfinger song 'J.C.' is actually talking about Jesus in this case.
- JC Denton from Deus Ex.
- John Cain from ONE., who is wrongfully accused and suffers to save humanity, much like Christ himself.
- Jane Crocker from Homestuck. As a Hero of Life, she can resurrect people and heal their wounds. She's come back from the dead herself a few times, too.
- Jebediah Christoff from Madness Combat. Bonus points for actually looking like Jesus.
- Jiminy Cricket, the Only Sane Man in Pinocchio. No coincidence, since his name comes from a Bowdlerisation of Jesus Christ.
- In one episode of King of the Hill, President Jimmy Carter settled a dispute at a Habitat For Humanity house. Bobby instantly invoked this, since Carter was "a carpenter, who worked a miracle, with the initials J.C.".
- For a Protestant fundamentalist, Jack Chick has a rather fortunate set of initials.
- Many decades before it became a thing, we had Julius Caesar. Indeed, coming so soon in the wake of Caesar's legacy, it may be that Jesus Christ's movement was a beneficiary of having the same initials as Julius Caesar.
JB Spies
Film
- Kingsman: The Secret Service: During spy school training, Eggsy names his dog "JB". Arthur guess both James Bond and Jason Bourne before being told its for Jack Bauer.
- Jason Bourne in The Bourne Series.
- John Brock, secret agent hero of three novels by Desmond Skirrow.
- Jack Bauer on 24.
- Jack Bristow on Alias.
- When it came time for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to do a holodeck malfunction story, they chose a cold war spy romp starring the character Julian Bashir.
Professional Wrestling
- Jane Blond from Women Of Wrestling, in case you had any doubts about the type of show it was.
- In Mage: The Ascension, the New World Order gives all its operatives an alias that initials to JB.
- Both averted and played straight in the 20th Anniversary edition, where a former NWO Man in Black is hinted to be the saviour of the Technocracy—and goes by the name John Courage.
- In a direct Shout-Out to this, the three Player Archetypes for Alpha Protocol were referred during its development as "the three JBs" (James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Jack Bauer).
Other Shout Outs
Literature
- It is fully acknowledged by the author that Honor Harrington is Horatio Hornblower IN SPACE!.
- The Laundry Files: The main protagonist is Robert "Bob" Oliver Francis Howard. In one of the stories, he gets an intern, Peter-Fred Young. Bob acknowledges in book two that BOFH aren't his real initials.
- Edward D. Hoch has detectives named Sam Hawthorne and Susan Holt, who share their initials with Sherlock Holmes.
- Julia Remine Piggin's Mini Mysteries has a detective named Sara Hull.
- On Angel, the evil, demonically-owned Occult Law Firm Wolfram & Hart employs attorneys Lindsey MacDonald, Lilah Morgan, Lee Mercer and Linwood Murrow, who all share their initials with Lucifer Morningstar.
- Star Trek: The Original Series: James T. Kirk's monogram would be extremely close to that of President John F. Kennedy's, of whom series creator Gene Roddenberry was a known admirer.
- The name is also very similar to that of the famous explorer James Cook.
- Star Trek: Voyager: Kathryn Janeway, the first major female Starfleet captain, has the inverted initials of Star Trek's first-ever captain.
- House: Gregory House shares a lot with Sherlock Holmes. House's 'sidekick' James Wilson has the same monogram as Holmes' Dr. John Watson, while House himself shares his second initial with Holmes (as well as being a pun on the name). Not to mention both are addicted to opiates and House's apartment address is even 221B on Baker Street.
Unfortunate Names and Punny Names
Comic Books
- Minor Justice League foe Ira Quimby (whose power is enhanced intellect).
- A ton of Harry Potter fics assign Sirius Black the middle name "Orion", making his initials SOB, which is also commonly used as an initialism for "son of a bitch". Since that happens to be literally true (his mother isn't very nice), provides a bit of a dog reference, and the astrological namesake is consistent with his family's Theme Naming, it's caught on widely.
- Miraculous Ladybug:
- Evillustrator: The Romantic Akuma
gives Lila Rossi the middle names Imani and Angelica, making her full initials LIAR. It's incredibly accurate.
- By the same author, Heart Thief and Riot and Empath (among other stories) identify Marc's horrible ex-boyfriend as Lucien Rebois. Given Lucien's skill at lies and manipulation, it's probably not a coincidence that he shares his initials with Lila Rossi.
- Evillustrator: The Romantic Akuma
- Variation: In And Then There Were None, Mr./Ms. Owen gives his/her hosts various first and middle names that start with "U" and "N" respectively. Combined with the last name, they're pronounced as "unknown".
- From another Agatha Christie novel, The ABC Murders, we have the unfortunately named Alexander Bonaparte Cust, the red herring who was deliberately set up by the true murderer.
- In House of Cards (UK), the author picked the name Francis Urquhart for the protagonist from the initials, "F.U."
- The American adaptation retains the initials with its equivalent character, Frank Underwood.
- In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry's son, Albus Severus Potter has quite a good reason to be afraid of getting sorted into the snake-themed Slytherin. Word of God says it was intentional.
- In Charles Stross' Bob Howard series, a throw-away line reveals that geeky Bob's full initials are B.O.F.H. (another throw-away line reveals that his name is a pseudonym to protect his True Name, suggesting that he picked his initials deliberately).
- In Live and Let Die, the villain's name is Buonapart Ignace Gallia, which combined with his size made the nickname "Mr. Big" inevitable.
- In the Oz books, the Wizard of Oz 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 the Uglies series, one of the character's names is Andrew Simpson Smith.
- The Dresden Files: Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden's initials are HBCD. He must be very thankful his father couldn't think of any magicians whose names began with "A".
- Chocoholic Mysteries: Bridal Bash features Raleigh "Rollie" A. Taylor. His initials spell "rat", and that's exactly what he is — one of the villains, referred to as "Ratso" among their group, who was using blackmail to get money from a wealthy man for years.
- All in the Family: when Mike and Gloria had a son, they were going to name him after the two grandfathers: Stephen Archibald Stivic. Archie complained that his name should come first, until Mike mentioned his initials would then be A.S.S. Eventually, they named him Joseph.
- Better Call Saul: Jimmy's initials are JMM (James Morgan McGill), which is monogrammed onto his briefcase. When meeting Lalo, who only knows him as "Saul", Jimmy lies and claims JMM stands for the motto "Justice Matters Most". Lalo later tells him his new motto should be "Just Make Money."
- In Only Fools and Horses, Del Boy names his son Damien Derek Trotter. Rodney points out that this makes his initials DDT.
- Carl Otis Winslow. And he's well aware of what it spells.
- Arby, the psychotic assassin from Utopia is actually named Pietre. His assumed name comes from his habit of eating raisins - Raisin Boy - and reveals to him to his own tragic past.
- The promiscuous Blanche on The Golden Girls has the full initials of "B. E. D."
Professional Wrestling
- Guess what Kassius Ohno does with his elbow?
- Dramatic Dream Team: The King Of Dark has the same initials as the KO-D Openweight title, the top belt in DDT.
- Nineteenth-century military buff Hiram U. Grant was reportedly 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. During The American Civil War he became known as "Unconditional Surrender Grant".
- 1950s B-Movie director Bert I. Gordon, who specialized in giant monster movies.
- In the Netherlands, we have "Katholieke Universiteit Tilburg" (Catholic University of Tilburg), the initials of which spell out the Dutch word for cunt.
- Berkeley, California, is one city north of Kensington. A church in Kensington avoids this trope by being called the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley.
- At a lecture to the Digital Biota group at Cambridge University, which studies evolution algorithms, Douglas Adams commented, "I was born in Cambridge in 1952, and my initials are DNA!"
- Russian Humour offers us a joke about one Barov Leonid Yakovlevich, whose initials read "BLYA" (a vulgar expletive, derived from "whore").
- Andrzej Sapkowski is often referred to by his fans by his initials: AS, which means ace in Polish.
- Felix Unger in The Odd Couple, whose initials spell out an unfortunate signature in his notes to Oscar.
- Ignatius Mortimer Meen, whose first two initials are to complete the Punny Name.
- The final case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice For All features a character named Matt Engarde. While initially nice, he turns out to be an extremely self-centered sociopath, and the initials of his name appropriately spell "ME".
Webcomics
- Problem Sleuth gives us Pickle Inspector. It fits into the detective theme naming, as P.I. is short for Private Investigator.
- In an additional King of the Hill example, Hank Hill and The Rival / Phrase Catcher Thatherton meet a new potential client, providing this glorious exchange:
Hank: Mr. Holloway, this is the only man ever censured by the Texas Propane Association, for lewdness and conduct unbecoming a propane salesman.M.F. Thatherton: M.F. Thatherton. Thatherton Fuels.Mr. Holloway: Dang glad to meet you, M.F.Hank: The M.F. stands for—M.F. Thatherton: My friend!
- In another episode of King of the Hill, in which Hank's lighter figures into the plot, the initials on it are shown to be 'HRH' (also the abbreviation for 'His Royal Highness').
- The Simpsons: It took long but Krusty the Klown understood the unfortunate implications of naming his show the "Krusty Komedy Klassic". To his chagrin, this came after beginning its performance at the Apollo Theater.
Author Avatar
Literature
- 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.
- P. Frank Winslow in F Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack novel Bloodline.
- A.P. (Alan Patrick) Herbert's "Albert Haddock", defendant in numerous preposterous law cases in Misleading Cases In The Common Law. According to Herbert, Haddock's middle name was probably Percival.
- Franz Kafka and every character named "K" in his body of work.
- Charles Dickens was reportedly very surprised when a reader pointed out that the initials of the title character in David Copperfield (a quasi-autobiographical novel) are Dickens' own, reversed (there's also a Charles Darnay in A Tale of Two Cities).
- From The Host (2008), written by Stephenie Meyer: the main character's host Melanie Strider. Bonus points in that the two names sound alike.
- Babylon 5's Jeffrey Sinclair and John Sheridan both share their initials with series creator J. Michael Straczynski.
- He did it again with John Simon, protagonist/narrator of his comic book series Rising Stars.
- The initials of the lead couple (JS and D) also match the initials of JMS and his wife at the time, Kathryn Drennan.
- Straczynski once said, "I don't do cameos, my initials do."
Miscellaneous
Anime & Manga
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica has the Soul Gems serving as the Puella Magis' Transformation Trinket and the Grief Seeds, which act as their sort of cleaning device when their Soul Gems go dark that spring up from defeated Witches. It turns out that they are one and the same, as the Grief Seed is what happens if you don't clean your Soul Gem.
Comic Books
- Jimmy Hudson from Ultimate X Men, son of James Howlett (better known by the names "Logan" and "Wolverine").
- The Justice League of China in New Super-Man share the initials of their American counterparts (allowing for "hard C = K", remembering that Chinese names have the surname first, and including the Mythology Gag of Diana Prince for Wonder Woman).
- Steel, birth name John Henry Irons, tried to run from his past by adopting the pseudonym "Henry Johnson", his first and middle initials in reverse.
- In Funky Winkerbean, one character received a job offer from Diversity University Ironton, the name of which was repeatedly given in its full twelve-syllable form rather than by its initials which also allude to drunk driving. The character turned down the job offer, thus avoiding the need for continued use of the awkward name.
- In The Santa Clause franchise the businessman who takes on the role of Santa Claus is named Scott Calvin.
- Antitrust — the villain is Gary Winston...GW....WG...William Gates.
- If you come across any character with the initials "RF" in a Stephen King book, there's a good chance that character is a version of his recurring Satanic Archetype villain Randall Flagg, introduced in The Stand.
- Stanley Hopkins, first introduced in "The Adventure of Black Peter", is a young detective at Scotland Yard who Sherlock Holmes believes may have a bright career.
- The Magic Map: The General Overseer’s title can be abbreviated to “G.O.”, and he turns out to be the Anthropomorphic Personification of geography.
- In The Illuminatus! Trilogy, one of the characters is warned to look out for anyone with the initials H.C. The character is almost raped in a jail cell by a convict named Harry Coin.
- My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!:
- Maria Campbell's indicates she's the intended Main Character in Fortune Lover, but after Catarina regaining her Past-Life Memories, the game's plot got completely Off the Rails.
- Catarina's friend Sophia Ascart just so happens to share her initials with Atsuko Sasaki (bear in mind that she's Japanese and would have her surname listed first), her best friend in her previous life, a hint that the former is actually the latter's reincarnation.
- In an unusually all-encompassing example, the initials of the cast of Atlanta Nights spell out "PublishAmerica is a vanity press", which the book was written to prove.
- Doctor Who: The Scrooge character in A Christmas Carol is named Sardick, although his first name is Kazran. His father, however, was named Elliot, and was even Scrooge-ier than he is.
- In the pilot episode of Grimm, the little girl who's been kidnapped by a Big Bad Wolf has her initials of "RH" written on her backpack, as if her wearing a red hoodie weren't enough of a hint which fairy tale is being played out.
- In the last episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, the Steve Jobs-esque CEO has the initials JS.
- Morris Fletcher, the sleazy MIB who switches bodies with Fox Mulder in The X-Files, has the initials MF, the reverse of Mulder's FM.
Music
- C. W. McCall: Fries gave his character McCall the initials "C. W." for "Country and Western", after the musical genre he used for the commercials, and which he would go on to perform in.
- On the stereo remake of the original cast recording of Kiss Me, Kate, Those Two Guys who sing "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" are credited as "Aloysius Donovan" and "Alexis Dubroff." These were both pseudonyms for featured star Alfred Drake.
- In Halo 3: ODST, the Rookie's initials are JD. He has no voice (besides for grunting) and no face. JD could stand for John Doe. This would also mean he has the same real name as Halo's main protagonist Master Chief.
- In Metal Gear Solid the Patriots AI are named GW, TJ, AL, TR and JD. The first 4 are named after the initials of the American Presidents on Mount Rushmore and the latter (the head AI) stands for John Doe.
- In City of Heroes, the Longbow officer in charge of operations in the Rikti War Zone is Wilhelmina Marlena Dietrich (WMD).
- The Big Bad in the first Bioshock game is an ambitious, government-hating industrialist named Andrew Ryan. Get it?
- The protagonist of Bioshock Infinite, Booker Dewitt, has the letters 'AD' branded on his right hand which stand as a self-inflicted reminder of his daughter, Anna Dewitt, whom he sold away to pay off his debt.
- In Metroid: Other M, the AI "MB", named after its creator, Madeline Bergman, who eventually saw it as a daughter and gave it the more proper name "Melissa Bergman". Also it was based on a certain other AI with those initials from the same series...Mother Brain.
- In Persona 5, Hikari Shimizu, whose Shadow you fight in Mementos, is abusing her boyfriend "M-moto." Both their family names' initials are S&M, which is indirectly lampshaded in a text conversation in which Mishima gives you Shimizu's information.
Visual Novels
- Jordan Davies in Havenfall Is for Lovers - almost universally referred to as "JD" - is The Jersey Devil.
- RWBY: The members of Robyn Hill's Happy Huntresses all share their initials with their counterparts from Robin Hood: Robyn Hill is Robin Hood, Fiona Thyme is Friar Tuck, and May Marigold is Maid Marian. Joanna Greenleaf is the odd one out, as her name comes from a combination of Little John and his alias Reynolde Greenleaf.
- Homestuck: During an intermission, Nanna Egbert reveals that her Evil Matriarch, Betty Crocker, wasn't human. A while later, we've almost forgotten about it - until Feferi's ancestress shows up, in a warship titled Battleship Condescension.
- The Exiles. Their names change, but their initials remain the same, forcing their past selves to be named with an additional question mark (with the semi-exception of Snowman and Jack Noir).
- The post-Scratch kids retain the chumhandles of GG, GT, TG and TT. Jake English also retains the monogram of John Egbert, and RL and DS also stay this way (even though the names themselves weren't revealed yet), and Jade Harley (JH) is, predictably enough, replaced with JC.
- Vriska Serket’s monogram is “VS” - fitting for the “pathologically competitive”.
- Critical Role: A strangely inverted example. According to Molly, the circus found him nearly catatonic and completely amnesiac after he'd crawled his way out of his own grave, and for the first few weeks he would only mutter the word "empty" to himself over and over again. Gustav misheard him and, thinking he was trying to tell them his name, started calling him "M.T." When the Crownsguard demanded everyone's papers, Gustav expanded the monogram into "Mollymauk Tealeaf" while forging Molly's documents, and Molly decided to just keep the name.
- 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 "BS". At the reference desk, we'd tell students to use the memetic "Bible Studies".
- Vladimir Putin's initials read VVP, which is the Russian abbreviation for GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Cue the jokes derived from him promising to double the Russian GDP and instead doubling himself (bringing Medvedev into big politics).
- British comedian Adrian Edmondson is known for his staggering array of talents in addition to comedy. His middle name is Charles. Think about that for a second.
- Pulitzer Prize-winning writer William Saroyan allegedly took great pride in having the same initials as William Shakespeare.
- Pennsylvania Military College decided to admit women in 1966, but to keep the college's cadet corps all-male, they opened a separate civilian school that admitted women and called it Penn Morton College, so that both schools had PMC as its initials. Collectively they were called PMC Colleges. The odd situation was rendered moot six years later when the school decided to just get rid of the cadet corps and renamed itself Widener College (now University), after a prominent Philadelphia family that had donated lots of money to the school.
- Of the theatrical duo Gilbert and Sullivan, William Schwenck Gilbert would often be identified by his initials WSG, but Arthur Seymour Sullivan was... not.
