Sam2: That is what doesn’t make sense. It’s okay to call him by his Hebrew initials but not his English ones? He was quite happy going under his English name. He certainly was far better known (and called) Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik than he was called by his Hebrew name during his lifetime.
(Many of his students may have called him “rav” when speaking to him just like any other rov’s or rebbe’s talmidim call him rebbe or rov. Rav Yoshe Ber, while used to an extent during his lifetime, only became popular posthumously.)