What do the initials stand for in T.S. Eliot's name?

The initials in T. S. Eliot’s name stand for Thomas Stearns. His full name was Thomas Stearns Eliot, the American-born poet, essayist, critic, and playwright who later became a British citizen.

Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 26, 1888, and came from a prominent New England family. He studied at Harvard, the Sorbonne, and Merton College, Oxford, before settling in England. He commonly published under the initials “T. S.”, which became one of the most recognizable signatures in modern literature.

Eliot’s major works include “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” The Waste Land, and Four Quartets. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 for his influential contribution to modern poetry. A common mix-up is assuming the initials represent a title or pseudonym; they are simply the first letters of his two given names.