6mo ago

Is it "Thelonious" or "Thelmoious"?

I can't find any good articles discussing the reasons for the differences in the spelling of Monk's first name/stage name. His wiki page says his birth name is "Thelious Monk Jr."

Surely someone has written about this, right?

EDIT: I forgot I was using a Firefox extension that swaps “Elon” to “Elmo” and I guess it was doing it within words too. LOL

thelmoiousmonk #thelmoiousmonk #jazz @jazzfm @jazz #music @music@lemmy.world @music@a.gup.pe @jazz

16 comments

I feel like I'm having a seizure reading this. Please fix the spelling of what you are trying to ask.
Thelonious Sphere Monk was born on October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of Thelonious (or Thelious) and Barbara Monk. His sister, Marion, had been born two years earlier. His birth certificate spelled his first name as "Thelious" and did not list his middle name, taken from his maternal grandfather, Sphere Batts.
via Wikipedia
see also: Straight, no chaser : life and genius of Thelonious Monk by Gourse, Leslie
- Monk is a legend. I didn't realize there was a discrepancy on his birth certificate. TIL.
- @gedaliyah
  Sorry, I fixed the original question. Is it Thelonious or Thelmoious?
  
  After the correction, I have no answer for you. "Thelmoious" returns zero web search results. No one here has ever heard this name or seen this spelling before you posted this question. I assumed it was a typo.

Thelonious.
- @foggy
  Then why is it "Thelonious" on his album covers?
  
  Then why is it "Thelonious" on his album covers?
  Because that is how it is spelled.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelonious_Monk_discography

I'm not entirely sure what your question is but plenty of people have one name on their birth certificate while using another name, even on legal documents. My aunt was in her fifties when she found out her birth certificate said Diana instead of her legal name, Diane.
- Dianious
- @oxjox
  Sorry, I messed up the title.... His name on albums is "Thelonious"...

16 comments