What was C.S. Lewis’s full first name, including the name represented by “S”?

C.S. Lewis’s full first names were Clive Staples. He was born Clive Staples Lewis in Belfast on 29 November 1898, and “C.S.” became the form by which he was best known as an author and scholar.

Lewis disliked the name Clive during childhood and was known to family and friends as “Jack,” a nickname connected with an early childhood dog named Jacksie. The nickname remained with him throughout his life, so biographies often call him Jack Lewis even though his published name was C.S. Lewis.

The middle name Staples was his mother’s maiden name. Lewis’s father, Albert James Lewis, was a solicitor, while his mother, Florence Augusta Hamilton Lewis, was the daughter of a priest. Lewis later became famous for works including The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, and The Four Loves.

A common mix-up is treating the S as a middle initial standing for Samuel or Stephen. It stood for Staples, and his full given-name combination was Clive Staples.