student asking question

It seems like "FDR" here stands for "Franklin Delano Roosevelt", but is it common to mention someone's name like this?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Yes, "FDR" does stand for "Franklin Delano Roosevelt" as a kind of nickname, a shorter way to refer to his name. This isn't super common. I wouldn't go around calling Donald Trump "DT" or Barack Obama "BO" to use other previous US presidents as an example. It could be that people actually did call him FDR while he was alive or that in history books it became easier to use his initials rather than writing his whole name. Ex: You can call me "B" instead of "Bernard". => nickname Ex: Micheal Jackson is still known today as MJ.

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