What is Jack O'Neill's legal name?
9h 4m ago by quokk.au/u/SatyrSack in stargate@sh.itjust.works from quokk.au
In Stargate SG-1 S7E3 "Fragile Balance", we see a close-up of Jack's United States Air Force identification card of some sort which clearly indicates his name is "O'NEILL, JOHN J." But basically every wiki article out there about the character indicates that his name is "Jonathan".
- https://www.gateworld.net/wiki/Jack_O%27Neill
- https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Jonathan_J._O%27Neill
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_O%27Neill
Is that correct? As far as I can tell, Jack's ID here indicates that his legal name is "John". If his legal name was actually "Jonathan", that is what would be on his military ID. Yes, most people who go by the nickname "John" are actually named "Jonathan" as their full legal name, but that is not always the case. There is no reason to assume that someone's military ID has a nickname printed on it, right? If someone's military ID indicates that their name is "John", I think it is safe to assume their full legal first name is just "John".
As far as I can tell, there is no indication in the show as to what Jack's full legal name is other than this quick closeup of his USAF ID. The only time the name "Jonathan" is ever actually spoken in Stargate SG-1 is Kinsey clearly talking to his driver in S5E10 "2001". That seems to just be a coincidence, for all we can tell. The name "John" is spoken a few times, but again, always clearly about some other person.
This concept of a legal "John" (not "Jonathan") going by "Jack" is a fairly common occurrence. Think JFK, Jack Nicholson, Jack Welch, Jack Donaghy, etc. Not as common as a legal "Jonathan" going by "John", but it happens. Jack O'Neill actually having the legal name "John" is definitely not unprecedented.
If the only evidence ever in the show says "John", it's John. Wikis are made by fans and can be (and frequently are) wrong.
Meh, even if it was a real CAC, things get weird with "legal names".
He could use "Jonathan" as a legal adult sounding name almost everywhere.
But if his birth certificate says "John Jack O'Neil" than that's what the military wants on everything.
It comes up a lot with Hispanic names where their mothers maiden name is on their birth certificate, but they've never used it. When they join the military, they suddenly have two last names and it's impossible to fix.
His name is jonathan but sometimes he’s called john and mostly he’s called jack. The prop is probably just incorrect because of continuity errors or the prop guy not realizing DOD ids have your full legal name on them, not nicknames.
His name is jonathan
According to what? As far as I know, the only time he was ever referred to anything other than "Jack" was just this ID. And, as you say, this ID clearly calls him "John", not "Jonathan".
Tracking this down was a bitch just so you know. Here is a screenshot from Stargate: Continuum's credits:
And that "smart card chip" is printed as well
The ID is completely wrong. Wrong color. Wrong date format. Wrong barcode format and placement. Color photo instead of black and white.
I assume it was because the USAF advisors didn't want people trying to copy the IDs or attempt to use one to get onto a base.