You probably know his birthday. You know Graceland. You know the voice, the moves, the jumpsuits. But here is something about Elvis Presley that even lifelong fans sometimes get wrong: his middle name.
When Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935, his birth certificate listed his middle name as Aron. Not Aaron, the familiar biblical spelling, but A-R-O-N.
There is a touching reason behind that unusual spelling. According to Elvis’ estate, his parents chose Aron so it would echo the middle name of Elvis’ stillborn identical twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley. They wanted the two names to rhyme. At the same time, Elvis was also named after a close friend of his father Vernon’s, a man named Aaron Kennedy, which added yet another thread to the story.
As Elvis got older, he reportedly came to prefer the traditional spelling: Aaron. When he looked into making it official, he discovered something that had quietly happened over the years: some state records had already listed his middle name as Aaron. That created a long-running tangle over which spelling was actually correct.
After Elvis died in 1977, his father Vernon made a quiet but meaningful decision. He had Aaron engraved on his son’s gravestone at Graceland, the spelling Elvis himself had wanted. It is the version his estate continues to use today.
So documents from his lifetime say Aron. His grave says, Aaron. Both spellings have been part of the conversation among Elvis fans for decades, and it is not hard to see why.
A small detail, really. But it connects back to a family’s grief, a father’s friendship, and a son’s own quiet wish. That is the kind of story that stays with you.