Harry Truman's S was a compromise between two grandfathers

A Family Initial, Not an Abbreviated Name

Harry Truman’s “S” solved a small family-naming puzzle. His grandfathers were named Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young, so the initial could honor both men without choosing one grandfather’s name over the other. It was not shorthand for a single middle name waiting to be filled in.

That makes the initial unusual: in a name such as “John D. Rockefeller,” the letter normally abbreviates a full middle name. Truman’s S instead functioned as the name itself—a compact tribute carrying two family connections.

Why the Period Is Debated

A period after the S usually signals an abbreviation. Since Truman’s letter did not abbreviate a specific name, writers and editors have differed over whether to punctuate it as “Harry S. Truman” or “Harry S Truman.” The disagreement is about how to print the initial, not about what it stood for.

The distinction is easy to miss because the familiar dotted form looks like an ordinary middle initial. But the letter’s meaning is more personal than that: one character could honor both grandfathers at once.