Mat Roy Thompson - Mat Roy's Name

Mat Roy's Name

There is a great deal of confusion surrounding Mat Roy Thompson's name. Mat Roy's birth name in 1874 was Leroy Thompson. The boy then known as Leroy, or often simply "Roy", lacked the middle name that was the fashion of the time. A relative of Roy's, whom some sources say was his cousin and others say was his uncle, felt it would be more appropriate for young Roy to have the more fashionable three names. This relative, who was himself named Mat, proposed to Roy that he take on the name "Mat" in exchange for the gift of a pony, which he would receive upon reaching the age of 21. Young Roy happily complied and allowed his name to be changed to Mat Roy. However, as the name Mat was a late addition, it remained fairly superfluous throughout most of Mat Roy's early life, with his family and close friends continuing to refer to him simply as Roy.

Mat Roy began to embrace his full name once he became an adult, and began billing himself as M. Roy Thompson in professional settings. In the late 1930s, the fashion for names shifted, and it became standard practice for men to refer to themselves in the formula of "First name, middle initial, last name" rather than the previous formula which placed the emphasis on the middle name. Mat Roy began to refer to himself as Mat R. Thompson, but to his dismay, he quickly discovered that this version of his name led to great confusion. Secretaries, bookkeepers, and acquaintances of his all assumed that his name "Mat" was a nickname, and began referring to him both verbally and on written record as Matt R. Thompson, Matthew R. Thompson, and Mathew R. Thompson, all incorrect. To further complicate matters, when Mat Roy later attempted to turn his engineering skills to national defense work, the birth certificate he obtained for his background check by the government listed him under his legal birth name, Leroy Thompson, a name which had no bearing whatsoever on the names he was now known by.

To clear things up once and for all, Mat Roy pursued the legal change of his name to Matthew Roy Thompson. This name was, however, also the name Mat Roy had given his third son upon his birth in 1900. Mat Roy and his son, Mat, liked to joke that in spite of Mat Roy being the elder of the two men, Mat was in fact "Matthew R. Thompson, Sr.", and Mat Roy was "Matthew R. Thompson, Jr." because of the order in which they had been named.