When someone has been known just by their initials, no periods are required (JFK, LBJ, etc.). MJ stands for Mary Jane. Periods, on the other hand, are probably required in official texts. However, if you're following Chicago, you need additionally leave a space between the initials: O.J. Simpson.
Periods are required with initials in names in Chicago style, as in "F. Scott Fitzgerald" and "T. S. Eliot," but not with other sorts of capitalized initialisms (most of which include at least two letters, as in "US"; see CMOS 10.4). Also per Chicago guidelines, words derived from proper names should be separated from the name by a space rather than an underscore (see Chicago Manual of Style - 15.23).
In addition, the Chicago style requires that time periods be divided into years before dates, like this: "James Buchanan was president from 1857 to 1861." There is no need to divide months or days.
For titles, names of publications, forms of address, and other matters where language allows for discretion, writers may use any desired format for clarity's sake. Thus one can write "Dr. J. K. Rowling" or "J. K. Rowling" or even just "Rowling."
With respect to titles, the Chicago style allows for both upper- and lowercase letters after the name unless it is necessary to distinguish each instance of the title within the text (for example, when referring to members of a committee).
As for names of publications, journals, conferences, etc., these also follow the first rule of English grammar: the subject goes before the object.
A name's initials A space should be put between the initials when a person uses two initials and a last name. In addition, a space should be included between the final initial and the last name. However, there is no gap between two-letter abbreviations (i.e., U.S., P.O.).
An example: John Q. Public. Here, the space is needed because it is not possible to read "John Q." without reading the following word or phrase somewhere below it on the page. Thus, this name would be considered fully written, and no gap should be inserted.
However, names like Jane Smith public are also common, and a space is inserted between the two letters because it is possible to read only "Jane" or only "Smith" from the name, and therefore there is no need to see how they are joined together.
Gaps can also appear in foreign names that are translated into English. For example, Johan Gustav Pauli would write his name as "J G Paul".
In French names, it is usual to omit the space between the first two letters of a compound name, although an exception may be made if the first letter is stressed (as in English). For example, it would be incorrect to write the name François-Marie Banant as "François-Marie Banát".
There should be a gap between the initials. There should be no space between the letters in a word. There should be a space after each letter in a word. There should be a period at the end of a sentence.
In general, you use the first letter of your first and last names as your initials, but you can also use the first letter of your middle or maiden names, or more than one letter from one of the names (e.g., someone with the last name DiAmico using both D and A).
JMT
Acronym | Definition |
---|---|
JMT | Just My Thoughts |
JMT | Johnson-McClean Technologies, Inc (New York, NY) |
JMT | Joint Mission Thread |
JMT | Joint Multi-TADIL |
You should probably consider using your first and middle initials. A surprising number of authors have achieved literary success while staying semi-anonymous by utilizing initials rather than full names. Here are a few of them, as well as some of the reasons why they chose not to use their given names.
Jane Austen - JANEY OSTENSLAND
J. K. Rowling - JK ROWLING
Harper Lee - HARPER LEE BROWN
Tom Wolfe - THOMAS MARTIN WOLFE
E. L. James - ELLIE PAGE DILLON
John Grisham - JOHN WILLIAM GRISHAM
Stephen King - STEPHEN GEORGE KING
Anne Tyler - ANNE TYLER
William Goldman - WILLIAM GOLDMAN
Paul Lieberman - PAUL LIEBERMAN
Bret Easton Ellis - BRET EASTON ELLIS
J.D. Salinger - JAMES DEAN SALINGER
Elmore Leonard - ELMORE LEONARD
Always include the author's surname before his or her initials. Only include initials for the first and middle names, but provide initials for any middle names provided by the source. Include a comma after each final name and between the names of distinct writers. Always use full stops at the end of citations.
In your example, "B. J., M. D." is the correct way to reference Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In legal documents, it is customary to refer to people by their initials rather than their full names. This is because many cases involve more than one party, and it is not necessary to know the full name of every participant.
Citing only part of someone's name is acceptable when the missing information can be found elsewhere in the document or article. For example, if a source mentions that Dr. King was a leader in the civil rights movement but does not provide a last name, you could reference him as "B. J., M. D." Since everyone knows who Dr. King is, this is enough to identify him in the citation.
It is important to note that only the writer of the piece or the editor who approves submissions will be able to find the referenced material via Google Search. Therefore, a reader cannot necessarily search for references to items that weren't included in the citation.