The President Whose Middle Name Was Nothing

What was Harry S Truman's middle name? The answer will surprise you.

Here's a trivia question that stops people in their tracks: What was Harry S Truman's middle name?

Most people say "Samuel" or "Solomon." A few say they don't know. Almost nobody gets it right — because the correct answer is simply: S. Just the letter. Nothing more.

A Compromise Between Two Grandfathers

Harry Truman was born on May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri. His parents faced a dilemma familiar to many families: both grandfathers wanted the baby named after them. His paternal grandfather was Anderson Shipp Truman. His maternal grandfather was Solomon Young.

Rather than choose one and offend the other, his parents did something wonderfully pragmatic: they gave him the middle initial S — which could stand for either Shipp or Solomon, or neither, depending on who was asking. It was a diplomatic solution worthy of the man who would one day navigate the end of World War II.

Does the S Need a Full Stop?

This question has sparked genuine debate among historians and style guides. Since the S doesn't stand for anything, some argue it shouldn't have a full stop after it — because a full stop after an abbreviation implies there's a word being abbreviated.

Truman himself was inconsistent — sometimes he wrote "Harry S. Truman" with a full stop, sometimes without. The Chicago Manual of Style recommends omitting the full stop. The Associated Press Stylebook recommends including it. The debate continues to this day — over a letter that stands for nothing.

The Man Behind the Initial

Truman became the 33rd President of the United States in April 1945, following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt — just weeks before the end of World War II in Europe. He made some of the most consequential decisions in modern history, including the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, and the creation of NATO.

He was famously plain-spoken and unpretentious — a man who kept a sign on his desk reading "The Buck Stops Here." It's somehow fitting that the most powerful man in the world had a middle name that was, quite literally, nothing at all.

Questions like this are what make trivia nights unforgettable — the moment when a simple answer opens a door to a story nobody expected. Our History round is full of moments like this. Come and join us at a Quizzards night near you, and follow us on Facebook for your weekly dose of the kind of facts that make you say: "Wait — really?"