Talk:Harry S Truman

Middle name

 * Properly, the "S" in Harry S Truman should have no period after it. "S" is not an abbreviation for a middle name; it is his middle name, itself.

This is a really dubious claim. The "S." is a compromise between his two grandfathers, and so one could claim that it is an abbreviation for both names, and that he doesn't have a middle "name", only a middle initial. Therefore, referring to it as a full name (by not including the period) is improper.

You'll note that the Truman Library refers to him as "Harry S. Truman". -- RobLa 19:48 Nov 30, 2002 (UTC)

So... shouldn't Harry S Truman be the redirect page, and Harry S. Truman the article? Needs a sysop to do it. -- Someone else 07:57 Mar 9, 2003 (UTC)

I think writing Harry S Truman without a period is ludicrous. S may not be an appreviation but it was intended to be used as such. No-one ever intended S to be treated as a name in itself. STÓD/ÉÍRE 00:18 Mar 21, 2003 (UTC)
 * JT, it's a Southern thing. My father's name is W H .  -- Zoe


 * I myself am a southern thing, but if you read the article to which this talk page is attached, you will see that southerner Harry S. Truman always used the period.  The title of this article should be changed.  Ortolan88

The article omits almost all discussion of the end of World War II, the Berlin airlift, and the Marshall Plan. This seems like a large omission. -- Dominus 06:11 Mar 17, 2003 (UTC)

I just checked at whitehouse.gov, and they use Harry S. Truman, so we should probably do the same. -- Zoe


 * Agreed that we should absolutely use "Harry S. Truman". I tried to move the page, but for whatever reason, I get an error.  It claims there's a page already at Harry S. Truman, which there is, but it's a redirect to Harry S Truman.  We may need an admin to nuke the redirect page before moving the main article. -- RobLa 05:04 Mar 21, 2003 (UTC)

Since the debate appears to be over, I am changing all references in articles from Harry S Truman to Harry S. Truman. I assume that a sysops could do this automatically, but I am going to at it manually as my first "grunt" project for Wikipedia. 209.149.235.241 20:32, 1 Feb 2004 (UTC)

It is clear to me based on all the controversy regarding President Truman's middle initial having or not having a period makes him by far the most controversial U.S. President in Wikipedia and perhaps the internet. This makes the 2000 election recount seem tame by comparison. Starrymessenger (talk) 23:17, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Please note, this topic has since been discussed on Talk:Harry S. Truman, and a consensus was so far reached; see here: Talk:Harry S. Truman/FAQ — djr13 (talk) 17:27, 20 December 2012 (UTC)