What does the 'W.H.' stand for in 'J.H.W.H. Conway' in Knuth's book Surreal Numbers?

Question

In his book Surreal Numbers Donald Knuth refers to John Horton Conway as J.H.W.H. Conway. The J is for John and the H for Horton, but what about the W and the H? I have searched for Conway's middle names but to no avail. Or are the extra initials purely fictional, added by Knuth in order to make a connection with Jehovah (YHWH)?

Answer 1

In Surreal Numbers there is already a passage where Bill says,

The JHWH might also stand for "Jehovah."

According to the paper you already cited (D. M. Berry, M. Yavne, Math Magazine 1976):

So, armed wit Hertz's Pentateuch [2], Alcalay's English-Hebrew and Hebrew-English Dictionaries 1, Knuth's book, paper, pencils, and erasers, we sat down and argued our way to the "original" Hebrew version of the Conway Stone. [...]

The name of the creator J.H.W.H. Conway poses a problem that Alice noticed

But 'Conway'... that's not a Hebrew name. You've got to be kidding

[...] Actually Knuth is kidding the name is clearly intended to suggest the name of the mathematician John Horton Conway of Cambridge University.[...]

J.H.W.H. is obviously intended to be translated as יהוה (letters: YHWH).

Any reasons to disagree with the authors?

See also Martin's Gardner Mathematical Magic Show:

Alice and Bill ( A and B), have fled from the "system" to a haven on the coast of the Indian Ocean. There they unearth a half-buried black rock carved with ancient Hebrew writing. Bill, who knows Hebrew, manages to translate the opening sentence: "In the beginning everything was void, and J. H. W. H. Conway began to create numbers." JHWH is a transliteration of how the ancient Hebrews wrote the name Jehovah. "Conway" also appears without vowels, but it was the most common English name Bill could think of that fitted the consonants.

See also this obituary by Scientific American: E. Landau (2020), Remembering Mathematical Magician John Conway