During his lifetime, RJBS referred to himself, published under the name as, and his rabbinic colleagues and students referred to him as Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik. His rabbinic peers (equals) generally called him (in person to him and between themselves) simply by those two initials of his first names. There wasn’t and isn’t anything derogatory about that. The reverence in mostly referring to him as R’ Yoshe Ber is, for the most part, posthumous by those seeking to raise his stature.
