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["Ruth Suehle" <wuzzled AT nc.rr.com>]

> While we're on this topic, will someone please explain what the H. is for?

Cecil and The Straight Dope are always there for ya.
www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_033.html

Dear Cecil:
How come people always say "Jesus H. Christ"? Why not Jesus Q. Christ or
Jesus R. Christ or something else? Does the H really stand for something? My
future peace of mind depends on your answer. --W.B.T., Chicago

Dear W.:

The H stands for Harold, as in, "Our Father, who art in heaven, Harold be
thy name" (snort).

Actually, I've heard numerous explanations for the H over the years. The
first is that it stands for "Holy," as in Jesus Holy Christ, a common enough
blasphemy in the South, abridged to H by fast-talking Northerners. Other
colorful Southern epithets include Jesus Hebe Christ and Jesus Hebrew
Christ, which abbreviate the same way. The drawback of this account is that
it is so boring I can barely type it without falling asleep. Luckily, the
other theories are more entertaining:

(1) It stands for "Haploid." This is an old bio major joke, referring to the
unique (not to say immaculate) circumstances of Christ's conception. Having
no biological father, J.C. was shortchanged in the chromosome department to
the tune of one half. Ingenious, I'll admit, but whimsy has no place in a
serious investigation such as this.

(2) It recalls the H in the IHS logo emblazoned on much Christian
paraphernalia. IHS dates from the earliest years of Christianity, being an
abbreviation of "Jesus" in classical Greek characters. The Greek
pronunciation is "Iesous," with the E sound being represented by the
character eta, which looks like an H. When the symbol passed to Christian
Romans, for whom an H was an H, the unaccountable character eventually
became accepted as Jesus's middle initial.

(3) Finally, a reader makes the claim that the H derives from the taunting
Latin inscription INRH that was supposedly tacked on the cross by Roman
soldiers: Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Hebrei (Jesus the Nazarene, King of the
Hebrews). Trouble is, the inscription is usually given as INRI: Iesus
Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum (J.C., King of the Jews).

Nonetheless, this is the kind of creative thinking I like to see from my
Teeming Millions. With every passing day, my mission on this earth comes
closer to completion.

--CECIL ADAMS