Why did Oscar Acosta sign his letters to Hunter S Thompson "Zeta"

January 10, 2010 4:20 PM

Why did Oscar Acosta sign his letters to Hunter S. Thompson "Zeta" and then later just "Z" ?

I've looked into what Zeta stands for and I can't find the correlation.

posted by thebrokenmuse to writing & language (4 answers total)

Wasn't it just his middle name?
posted by Madamina at 4:22 PM on January 10, 2010

Yeah, it was his middle name. I have a friend and writing buddy who always has and always will address me by my middle name. I sign all my correspondences with either just my middle name, or simply "E". No great mystery to solve :)
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 4:30 PM on January 10, 2010

Slight correction: if Oscar Zeta Acosta works like most Spanish-language names, Zeta is not his "middle name" in the American sense but his father's family name, with Acosta being his mother's. People with such names are generally known by their father's family name, i.e., what looks to an American like their middle name. That is why Fidel Castro Ruz is known as Castro and not Ruz.
posted by languagehat at 7:46 AM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

I think it was probably a nickname and not his middle name, and not his father's name. Several sources put it in quotes, as 'Oscar "Zeta" Acosta'. Here's what he wrote in an essay titled "From Whence I Came":

If I had it my way I'd just be O; but as it is, my name is Oscar and my father's name is Acosta. I was never giving a middle name and don't ask me why I was given the name Oscar.

Maybe somewhere in there he explains how he got the name Zeta, but I don't have the book and could only find so much in Google Books.
posted by Jasper Fnorde at 10:59 AM on January 11, 2010