Be famous for your initials in France

Here's a test of your knowledge of modern France and its passion for abbreviation. Explain the following headline which appeared in a newspaper today

OGM + NKM + UMP = COCKTAIL EXPLOSIF

To anyone following the news, the line in La Charente Libre made complete sense. OGM stands for genetically modified organism; NKM is the Minister for the Environment, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet; UMP is President Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement. The minister had just caused a furore by accusing her own party of cowardice over genetically modified crops.

Like other Latin and bureaucratic countries, France shortens many long titles into every-day initials. Un smicard is someone who receives le SMIC, or minimum wage. Few bother saying jeux olympiques. The games are usually just les JO. This is not to be confused with a GO, or gentil organisateur, a host at the old Club Med resorts, thus any boy-scoutish organiser. The 35-hour working week has given France the joys of the RTT (pronounce errtété) or time off (Récuperation du Temps de Travail). You can use it for a spot of VTT  (mountain biking)

Abbreviating names is especially French. All right, America had JFK first, but say JFK in Paris and people will understand Jean-François Kahn, a veteran journalist and commentator. You know you have made the big time when your initials replace your name. NKM (the environment minister, in picture), who is only 34, earned the rank this week with her feisty defiance of her bosses.

She only apologised after a threat of dismissal from Sarkozy, who is known as NS only to his staff and the tailor who monograms the left chest of his custom-made shirts. MKM is, however, dangerously close to NTM, a notorious rap group which has just been relaunched. Their initials stand for "F...Your Mother" in urban slang).

To be fair to Sarko, few earn two-initial celebrity. The last was probably BB, the film star-turned animal lover whose initials became a pop music hit in the hands of the great Serge Gainsbourg, her lover at the time (any excuse for another Gainsbourg video, see below).

It greatly helps to have three or even four names, and preferably unusual ones like NKM. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, father of the EU Constitution (revived as a treaty) is known as VGE by people who were not even born when he was President in the 1970s. PPDA, or Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, the quirky grand master of French TV news, is so familiar that his puppet version on a satirical show is called just PPD (pronounced Pépédé).

The honour of initials is rarely bestowed on those who promote themselves for the rank. A certain Georges-Marc Benamou, a journalist-writer, has been trying in vain to become known as GMB. Obscurity now awaits him after he lost his job as Sarkozy's cultural adviser and became the target of a vendetta in the intellectual world.

One big ego who came a cropper with an initial grab was J2M. At the time that Jean-Marie Messier (he called himself J2M) was taking the Vivendi Universal group close to bankruptcy six years ago, he revelled in the nickname J6M. This stood for Moi-Même, Jean-Marie Messier, Maître du Monde (Master of the World)

Here are some other celebrities known by their initials:

BHL -- Bernard-Henri Lévy, a celebrity thinker

DSK --  Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a PS baron who heads the FMI [OK, Socialist Party and International Monetary Fund]

JJSS -- Jean-Jacques Servan Schreiber, late media tycoon

MAM -- Michèle Alliot-Marie, Interior Minister

CDG -- Airline code for Paris airport (Charles-de-Gaulle is called Roissy airport in France and the late president was not known by his initials, unlike VGE)

[video: Initials BB  --  Serge Gainsbourg]

Comments

[Fraser]

OMG-LMAO!! But WTF, J6M = TIT (no acronym there) thanks CB (Carte Bancaire? Carte Bleu? Charles Bremner?)

[Marguerite.]

Bravo, Charles Baudelaire !

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

At a Press launch of a big new television company in the North East of England, they had called themselves after the three rivers of the region: Tyne, Wear, Tees. A reporter looked at their new letter heading and laughed: Tyne, Wear and Tees television. They threw away 10,000 sheets. It has been Tyne Tees television ever since.

[Helen]

I saw a car with the initials DSK on the registration plate. Wonder was it his?

I'm guilty of using the likes of CDG and PS on a regular basis, which can lead to blank looks from those not familiar! And as for explaining that the SNCF and the RATP are on strike...it's like some sort of code!

[Francois D]

NKM has one of the finest pedigrees that one may imagine in France. A grandfather ambassador of Gl De Gaulle at Washington (we say CDG for airport, not for the great man), a father minister of VGE (Valery Giscard d'Estaing), issued at 19 years from the "X" (sorry, that means Ecole Polytechnique, the top of high schools). She curiously preferred after "X" the National school for Forests and Water (created before 1789 revolution by Colbert, no abbreviation for this school) instead of ENA (Ecole Nationale d'Administration) explaining probably a taste and expertise for ecology.

In short, surely a gifted ("surdouée").

But what idea, when you are a young, beautiful and intelligent woman to go in the backwater of the policy microscome and speak out loud, criticizing the minister who "chaperone" you?

This woman is dangerous. In addition, she was propelled by Jacques Chirac (sorry, we say "Jacques Chirac" because "JC" is reserved since 2000 years). She very quickly realized that with a name so complicated she had interest to get an acronym.

One has already talked, in 2006, about her for "artistic photos" quite daring in Paris Match when she was pregnant (they seem to have disapear from the net).

So, I Imagine she could participate to an artistic exposure in an 2009 almanach with CB, in the best presentation, meaning with the less possible clothes, profits being reserved for a foundation.

For CB, you have choice between two famous initials: Charles Bremner or Carla Bruni.

As you see, it may be dangerous to promote abbreviations.

[John]

@Charles Bremner: you exagerate things, as usual with your articles describing supposed French quirks. As if initials were only used in (I quote) "Latin and bureaucratic countries" (oh the cheap veiled insinuation...). Initials also abund in the Anglo-Saxon world, unfortunately, in particular in computer science and high-tech fields. And if you want a country really crazy about initials, I suggest you target Vietnam where they use initials everywhere and for everything.

[Pierre]

http://www.humourr.com/divers/image-record_du_monde.html

A Frenchman broke a new record. I am proud of my country.

[Emmanuel]

It's funny how features of a language that is not your native language, can strike you as a unique characteristic to this language, when actually, it is exactly the same in your mother tongue!
Before reading CB's article, I thought abbreviations were something only british people were fond of.(I'm french)
MP (Member of Parliament)
DIY (Do it Yourself)
MoD (Ministry of Defense)
ASBO (Anti Social Behaviour Order)
GM (Genetically Modified)
WAGs (Wifes & Girlfriends)
wysiwyg (what you see is what you get)
PM (Prime Minister)
EU.....B4.....to name but a few.

Thanks to your article Charles, I now know french and english people share the same passion.

[Romain]

A nice video about SNCF, the Village People way, enjoy !

http://www.koreus.com/video/ymca-sncf.html

Pierre
Yes! We are the champions, my friend. Previous record was 7.7 grams, also in France; they did not jail the guy because doctor said weaning was too dangerous. (see my semi-colon?)

[Ros]

EMMANUEL: You are indeed right -but are we just talking about initials belonging to people's NAMES as Charles was doing in the article or abbreviations in general? If the latter we can go on for ever & why not? - it could be fun!

[John Styx]

Apart from JFK, all Anglo-Saxon initials I can think of actually stand for Christian names: O.J. (Simpson), J.R. (Ewing), C.C. (Babcock, that's for sitcom fans), etc.

Using initials instead of a long Christian name is also current practice in France. Everyone I know uses FX (pronounced "f x" or "fix") for "François-Xavier" — one FX I know works in forex markets, which adds some salt to the thing. The longest initials I know for a person are "HLPDS" for someone who now is the CFO of Groupama.

[qwerty]

You need at least three initials to your name to have a half-way interesting acronym. It's easy for Americans: they all insist on having their middle initials, even on the office phone list. So on an internally circulated office document, the Americans have lengthy acronyms and the humble French two initials only (unless they have a double-barred first name, which is quite frequent). See who's "aristocratic"? Oh, and of course there are plenty of Yanks who in addition will want II or III added behind their name (looks better than "Junior" or "Junior bis").

[christopher muir]

MAM is an excellent-sounding description for the French iron lady concerned. Terrific list that I shall keep for reference.

[John Styx]

Oh gosh, we all forgot JPP! Jean-Pierre Papin is a soccer player who used to be very popular in France.

Concerning Mr Benamou (or GMB), I tried in my youth to be called by my initials, because I found my first name to be too exotic. It never worked.

On a side note, we French use abbreviations for standard messages on calling cards. When you visit someone and find he/she's not at home (which you had hoped for, really), you leave a dog-eared calling card with mysterious abbreviations like PPC ("pour prendre congé") or PFC ("pour faire connaissance"). It's a bit like the SWALK messages the British used to write on the outside of letters. So there's a classic joke about a parvenu whose butler leaves cards with the initials "MERDE", as in "Monsieur est revenu des eaux".

[Ros]

"Sorry, Querty, but am very ignorant about american ways of writing -You say " will want II or III added behind their name " - you mean if Charles' father was also called Charles, he could put in the phone book "Charles Bremner II (=2)?
Seems a bit odd .....

[Steve]

My French wife has lived in England for 11 years, and there's no doubt she finds some of the social, commercial and political acronyms used in the French media confusing at times.
Your piece about initials is a timely reminder of when best to avoid using them.
She runs a club in the Cheltenham area along with two compatriots, which gives Francophiles the opportunity to enjoy social events, the only condition being that they speak French throughout. Hence the club's name - Strictly French Speaking. On considering the branding for it, we thought - for a moment - of just using the initials - SFS. Then we realised this could be pronounced, in French, as something approaching 'Eh, ses fesses!', which we decided might not have the right connotations. It's most definitely not that kind of club.

[qwerty]

Ros - maybe not on the phone list, I'm overdoing it. But Americans do seem to have dynastic inclinations, and at least in their biographies they will add the "II" or "III" or whatever.

About NKM: I think she's good, she makes up for all the gaffes of the other women in the government like RD, MAM, RY, CL, not forgetting SR of the socialist party. I'm sure she must have been right when she called JLB and JFC cowards.

[Michel Rose]

What about political correctness (PC) in the UK (another initials...), which turns embarrassing concepts into more satisfyingly prudish initials?

Examples: "BO" for body odour as in: "The Piccadily Line is such an ordeal during summertime, it smells like BO as soon as you get in the carriage".

Or: "PDA", for Public Display of Affection, as in: "They were French kissing in Kensington Gardens the whole afternoon! Such PDA is totally unacceptable!"

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

The most prized and sort-after motor-car number plate was FU2

[dot king]

"They were French kissing in Kensington Gardens the whole afternoon! Such PDA is totally unacceptable!" Michel Rose

"in France they kiss on Main Street
Amour, Momma, not cheap display "

10 points for the next line
come on AZERTY, you can do it, especially if I "hiss" you a clue :)

[Valentin]

CB:
"The honour of initials is rarely bestowed on those who promote themselves for the rank."

Indeed. See Franz-Olivier Gisbert's case, whose (bit lame IMO) attempts to make himself known as FOG hardly went beyond the homonymous show on France5.

[Maggie G]

John Styx,

Besides JFK, there was RFK (Bobby Kennedy) and LBJ (Lyndon Johnson), and George Bush gets called GW, but I'm not sure if he gets called GWB. (I think he does, doesn't he?)

I don't remember Nixon being called RMN, or Bill Clinton being WJC, but there must be others.

Lyndon Johnson's whole family had the initials LBJ - his wife Lady Bird, and his daughters Lynda and Lucie.

Ros,

In my experience, lots of Americans add numbers behind their names. My grandmother's brother went down to the States, and in their family tree there are four gnerations with the identical same name.

I'm looking at a photo here that says, "George M K Sr, George M K Jr, George M K III, and George M K IV on greatgrandpa's knee".

If they all lived in the same town they would certainly use the numbers, I should think. And on the birth certificate too, probably.

I come from a very small town, and my grandfather, my uncle, and my brother were all called Tom, but their initials were different -- TAC, TJC and TCC. All the same, my brother used to get a lot of letters addressed to Tom C C THE YOUNGER.

[Julio]

I remember Messier as
J8M : Moi-Même, Jean-Marie Messier, Maître du Monde Massacré par les Marchés.

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

The British army one is: LMF = Lack of Moral Fibre.
The Police have several: IPO = Impersonating a Police Officer
and GBH = Grievous Bodily Harm..
Dozens of new sets of initials came out of the Vietnam war, and Richard West, a journalist reporting the war, wrote a poem entirely in American army initials. Luckily, I cannot remember it.

[dot king]

CB is also Christine Boutin, charles, haven't you got a middle initial?

[Romain]

Lyndon Johnson's whole family had the initials LBJ Maggie G
I remember a protest song :"LBJ , how many kids did you kill today ?"

WWI popular initials in British army, in the trenches latrines:

SSDD: (same shit different day)
MYOBB: (mind your own bloody business)

[Ros]

That's very interesting, Maggie G - thanks for the information!

[WXCVBN?./]

Ros,

And that photo (of four generations of George M Ks) was taken in 1964. Who knows what number they're up to now?

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

The initials LBJ remind me that the journalist mentioned above, Richard West was on the Presidential plane leaving Saigon when LBJ addressed the Press Corps: "I know what all you guys did last night, because I had you-all followed, so I know what you drank and who you screwed. But I don't do stuff like that because Lady Bird is the best lay I ever had." Curious about their President's behaviour, I enquired further and LBJ had a habit of "flashing" visiting newspapermen, taking them into the loo to show off, saying "Go on, beat that" to the chagrin of serious men from Le Monde. When Harold Wilson was mentioned, LBJ said: "Harold Wilson? I've got his pecker in my pocket."
Hearing all this, the Americans in Spain wanted to impeach him, but nothing came of it.

[isobel]

Dot King
"in France they kiss on Main Street
Amour, Momma, not cheap display "

10 points for the next line
come on AZERTY, you can do it, especially if I "hiss" you a clue :)

Well, as nobody has answered since you posted this yesterday Dot, I think the answer is Joni Mitchell In France they kiss on Main Street, next line is-

"And we were rolling, rolling, rock n rolling"
A bonus point for getting the clue reference to The Hissing of Summer Lawns which is a Joni Mitchell album?

[dot king]

"A bonus point for getting the clue reference to The Hissing of Summer Lawns which is a Joni Mitchell album?" (Isobel)

It certainly is Isobel. Take a handful of bonus points and I wish you a weekend of "thrilling to (the) Brando-like things"

I have that album on vinyl and on CD, and along with the original Joan Armatrading - the one that's called "Joan Armatrading" (has "Love and Affection" on it) - it's one of a selection of albums I NEVER tire of. Can listen to it any time.

[Pierre Bernardi]

You can't beat URSSAF, which to this entrepreneur sounded suspicially like the 'Union des Républiques Soviétiques Socialistes' Air Force' when faced with a first demand for payment.

[qwerty]

URSSAF: I know that feeling well, Pierre. Brutes, they are. But it's not the first demands, it's when they catch up on their 2-year backlog because they're incapable of calculating your dues more or less in real time.

[dot king]

NKM - I heard on this morning's news that according to a poll conducted of which the results are made public today, that this admirable young woman has more than 70% of favourable opinion for her criticisms of her govermnment colleagues.
Le compte à rebours est donc parti!

[Daniel Strohl]

Dot,

The end of the "compte à rebours" is (perhaps) May 2012 :))

Ceci dit, NKM should have been consistent with her (most probably justified) criticisms and should therefore have resigned, instead of presenting lame apologies to her boss(es).

The former mayor of Belfort and leftist politician , Chevénement, is famous for having said: "Un ministre, ça ferme sa gueule, ou ça s'en va" (a minister shuts up or leaves). He was consistent with his words, since he resigned (as far as I remember) two times as a minister not being in agreement with his government or head of state. I respect him for that - that does however not imply than I am a fan of his political ideas ...

Qwerty, Pierre,

Re : URSSAF

May be 15 years ago, I qualified them in writing (lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception) as "fermiers généraux du 20.ème siècle". In fact, they had charged me (unduly in my opinion) with a 10% penalty for late payment. Of course, my letter was polite, with consistent arguments in good French.

The latter self compliment is probably deserved since I got in return a polite and detailed answer, in an absolutely perfect French (somewhat not very usual when one has to deal with the "administration" or their subcontractors). The letter (undersigned by a lady with her full name) explained thoroughly and with sound legal arguments (with relevant law numbers and paragraphs) why I was wrong. However, in the last line of the letter, the lady said that, due to the fact that we had always paid in due time in the past, the penalty was cancelled ...

PS : for non French bloggers:
URSSAF : Union de recouvrement des cotisations de sécurité sociale et d'allocations familiales

URSSAF works as a sort of (feared) subcontractor of the Ministère des Finances. The above mentioned "fermiers généraux" were also a sort of "subcontractors" of the kings of France - they collected taxes for the king in the provinces, most of the time ruthlessly.

The most famous fermier-général was Fouquet. He used a part of the collected money to built the beautiful château de Veaux, where he invited Louis XIV. The latter became envious. He built Versailles and Fouquet finished his life in jail ...

[Le Bernardisme est-il un art sauvage ?]

Qwerty, yes, been there, done that, closed the shop (at the URSSAF office, very handy). Let's not forget health insurance, age insurance, VAT (that's value-added tax) and basic tax.

Charles, you really need to give us your middle initial.

PJB

[dot king]

"NKM should have been consistent with her (most probably justified) criticisms and should therefore have resigned," Daniel Srohl

Oh absolutely, I quite agree with you.

[John Styx]

Daniel, Fouquet was not a fermier général. He built Vaux when he was Superintendent of Finances, which is not the same thing.

[qwerty]

Pierre, I haven't closed shop as yet and I'm currently filing various declarations. I see I have to reintegrate the CSG non-déductible (did I actually do that in previous years? I think it's a step I skipped - involuntarily, of course, monsieur le contrôleur) but how to calculate it with all this URSSAF va-et-vient: plus this, minus that, you pay this, we pay you back this... if only they could at least, just so I know how profitable I have been, send me (even 2 years late, I'm easy) an actual assessment of what I paid them on the basis of the years when I was earning so much it wasn't even worth it in view of what I had to return to the "collectivité".

Just an example of French red tape. Social justice?

[Daniel Strohl]

John Styx,

Thanks for the correction - I have mixed things up ...