It's obviously their first names. Ron, er Sleaonard and Adi. Dur.

In a book on the subject I read, they had assigned the initials in the obvious way.

That's true. The 'S' is from the second last letter in "Ron Rivest", and the 'R' is the second last in "Leonard" (Adleman).

Those crypto guys get their chuckles in strange ways!

"Since the A in RSA stands for Shamir, after he came up with the idea with MIT buddies Ron Rivest
and Leonard Adleman."

R== Rivest, S==Shamir, A==Adelman

A!=Shamir

"Since the A in RSA stands for Shamir..."?
Pray tell why this might be.

"Since the A in RSA stands for Shamir"

Surely you meant to say "Since the S in RSA stands for Shamir"?

Oliver.

Silly me, I thought that it is "S" was for Shamir, not A. You know, Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman....