[9] Four of the five Nixon boys were named after kings who had ruled in medieval or legendary Britain; Richard, for example, was named after Richard the Lionheart.[10]
Nixon's early life was marked by hardship, and he later quoted a saying of Eisenhower to describe his boyhood: "We were poor, but the glory of it was we didn't know it".[11] The Nixon family ranch failed in 1922, and the family moved to Whittier, California. In an area with many Quakers, Frank Nixon opened a grocery store and gas station.[12] Richard's younger brother Arthur died in 1925 at the age of seven after a short illness.[13] Richard was twelve years old when a spot was found on his lung, and with a family history of tuberculosis, he was forbidden to play sports. The spot turned out to be scar tissue from an early bout of pneumonia.[14][15]

Primary and secondary education
Nixon at Whittier High School, 1930
Nixon attended East Whittier Elementary School, where he was president of his eighth-grade class.