You can call me "Al"...

[RJNorton]

Eva, Jason Emerson's sources for this are Robert's law partners, Edward Isham and William Beale. Another source was Jack's teacher, C.N. Fessenden.

Emerson says that the more common explanation seen in books is that "Robert told his son the name 'Abraham Lincoln' was too reverential a name to be bestowed until the boy had earned the right to wear it, which his father would decide at age 21." Emerson regards this explanation as apocryphal.