Tad Saves Jack the Turkey

[RJNorton]

I agree with Eva. I don't think it had anything to do with Jack the turkey. Jason Emerson writes that the boy was "promptly nicknamed 'Jack' by his father, apparently because Robert felt 'Abraham' too long and formal a name for a young boy, and he disliked the moniker 'Abe,' just as his father had." In a footnote Jason writes that this explanation was given by both of Robert's law partners and also by Jack's teacher, C.N. Fessenden. Jason also adds that the story of not calling him Abraham Lincoln "was too reverential a name to be bestowed until the boy had a right to wear it, which his father would decide at age 21" is apocryphal.