American Language Supplement 2 (84 page)
Read American Language Supplement 2 Online
Authors: H.L. Mencken
Where the early Germans encountered forerunners who were not British they often changed their names to accommodate non-English speechways,
e.g
., French. On the so-called German Coast of Louisiana, settled in the Eighteenth Century, many of their surnames were thus Gallicized almost beyond recognition.
Buchwalter
became
Bouchevaldre, Wichner
became
Vigner, Wagensbach
became
Vacquensbac, Zehringer
became
Zerinque
, and
Huber
became
Houbre, Houver
and
Ubre
.
4
The same process has been recorded in France itself, and also in Spain, Italy and the Slavic lands.
5
The Germans have made the balance even by Germanizing many non-German names at home and also in their settlements in this country. To balance a German
Lesch
family which became
Lech, Laiche, Lesc, Leichert
and
Lecheux
in Louisiana
6
there was a French
Lecher
family in Pennsylvania which became
Lesher
, and a French
Lessecq
family which became
Lessig
.
7
An old tale tells of a Scotsman named
Ferguson
who, on settling among Germans in western New York, suffered the change of his name to
Feuerstein
, and then, on moving to an English-speaking settlement, had to submit to its translation into
Flint
. One of his grandsons, on immigrating to Louisiana, became
Pierre à Fusil
, and a son of this grandson, on returning to civilization, became Peter
Gun
.
8
To this may be added
the fact that when William
Wordsworth
, the English poet, settled at Goslar in the Hartz in 1798 the local Dogberrys recorded him on their scrolls as
Waetsford
.
1
Americans of German descent who have clung to the original spelling of their names must submit to their mauling in pronunciation. Frederick Henry
Koch
(1877–1944), professor of dramatic literature at the University of North Carolina and founder of the folk-play movement, was always called
Kosh, i.e., coach
without the
t
-sound. As we have seen, the
sch
-cluster, as in
Schlens, Schleicher
and
Schneider
, is usually reduced to simple
s
, but not before
r
, as in
Schreiner
. The difficult
ch
-sound is seldom attempted; when it does not become
sh
it becomes
k
. The long German
u
is shortened, so that the first syllable of
Gutman
rhymes with
but
. The umlaut disappears, as in the name of Whittier’s Maud
Muller
, that of the banking firm,
Kuhn
, Loeb & Company, and that of the New York restaurant,
Luchow’s
.
2
Any unusual German name is bound to be mispronounced and misspelled. Mr. F. C.
Fiechter
, Jr., a lawyer of Philadelphia, has amused himself by collecting such distortions of his surname,
e.g
., as
Fletcher, Flechter, Feichter, Feighter, Frechter, Fichter, Fietcher
and
Fiescher
,
3
and Dr. Alfred D.
Schoch
, of Chicago, has matched them with fifty or more misspellings of his name,
e.g., Shock, Schooh, Schloch, Schack, Schoock,
Scooch, Sikoch, Sochs, Schmoch, Schoach, Sikoch
and
Scochoch
.
1
Even German names that have become well known,
e.g., Schurz, Mayer
and
Steinmetz
, are seldom pronounced correctly.
2
497. [Of all the immigrant peoples in the United States, the Jews seem to be the most willing to change their names.] This willingness did not originate in the Republic; they brought it with them. In the Russian Pale from which so many of them came the eldest son of a family was exempt from military service, and in consequence the custom arose of younger sons bribing the 100% Russian officials to change their surnames, thus enabling them to pass as the eldest sons of mythical families.
3
It was also common for Jews who got on in the world to exchange their distinctively Jewish and usually commonplace names for new ones sounding more Russian and more elegant. In one of the stories of Sholom Aleichem there is a character named
Peshach Pessi
who adopts the sonorous
Platon Pantolonovich Lokshentopov
. His wife becomes
Pantomina
, and one of his cousins takes the style and appellation of
Fanfaron Faaronovich Yomtovson
. In another Aleichem story
Yenkel Voroner
– that is,
Yenkel of Vorone
, a town in Lithuania – becomes
Yakov Vladimirovich Voronin
.
4
Many of the principal recent figures in Russian history, bearing Russian names, came into the world with Jewish ones. The martyred
Lev Davidovich Trotsky
, for example, was born
Bronstein
, and the diplomat,
Maxim Maximovich Litvinoff
or
Litvinov
, was born
Finkelstein
.
5
In all other countries where name-changing
is, legally speaking, relatively facile, Jews assume names borrowed from the local onomasticon. In England there are thousands of
Mosses
who were originally
Moseses, Brahams
who were
Abrahamses
, and
Montagues, Mortons, Taylors, Gordons, Leftwiches, Harrises, Davises, Morrises, Phillipses, Lewises
and
Lees
who have no blood kinship to those ancient tribes.
1
In France there has been a similar assumption of protective coloration in names, but it has been limited by statutes forbidding changes without legal permission by persons holding professional licences from the state – for example, for the practise of medicine. These statutes are sometimes violated, but probably not often, for violations are prosecuted. Said the Paris correspondent of the
Journal of the American Medical Association
in 1933:
2
Many foreign physicians seek to change their names on the pretext of making them easier to pronounce, but the main object is to conceal their nationality. These changed forms of names consist sometimes of simple translations, which deceive the public.
Klein
becomes
Petit, Delbrück
becomes
Dupont
, for example. A Rumanian physician by the name of
Fliesmann
, having acquired his diploma in the proper manner at the Faculté de Paris, opened an office in Paris, after assuming the French name
Florian
. He has been sentenced to pay a fine of $5 and an indemnity of $50, payable to the syndicate of the physicians of the Seine region, who brought suit against him.
The willingness of Jews to change their surnames is no doubt also helped along by the fact that those surnames, in many cases, are relatively recent, and hence do not radiate old associations and family pride. It was not until 1782 that the Jews of Austria were compelled to assume surnames, and not until 1812 and 1813 that those of Prussia and Bavaria, respectively, had to follow.
3
This
compulsion was resisted by large numbers, and the harassed officials punished them by giving them names of a grandiose or otherwise ridiculous character,
e.g., Edel
(noble),
Lilienthal
(valley of lilies),
Wohlgeruch
(perfume),
Armenfreund
(friend of the poor),
Ochsenschwanz
(ox tail),
Wanzenknicker
(louse cracker),
Drachenblut
(dragon’s blood) and
Schöndufter
(sweet smeller).
1
Not infrequently a Jew was blackmailed by being threatened with a name that was obscene or otherwise ruinous,
2
but those who paid handsomely were permitted to choose names grateful to their sometimes florid fancy. This last fact, I suppose, accounts for the large number of surnames in
Gold-, Fein-
(fine) and -
blum
(flowet) among the German Jews.
Flesch, in the article lately cited, shows that many very familiar Jewish names are translations of Hebrew given-names into German, Polish, Russian or some other language of the
Diaspora
. Thus
Naftah
(defined in Genesis XLIX, 21 as “a hind let loose”) became
Hirsch
(deer) in German, and from
Hirsch
flowed a number of other names,
e.g., Herz, Herzl
and
Herzler
. Similarly,
Jehuda
or
Judah
(defined in Genesis XLIX, 9 as “a lion’s whelp”) became
Löwe
(lion), and produced
Loew, Loeb, Leon
and even
Levin
and
Levinsohn; Schalom
(peace) was turned into
Frieden
(German: peace), and produced
Fried
and
Friedman;
and
Simcha
(joy) became
Freude
(German: joy), and produced
Freud, Freudman
and various other derivatives. Sometimes one Hebrew name sufficed to engender two or more in German, according to the way it was translated. Thus
Asher
(defined in Genesis XLIX, 20 as one whose “bread shall be fat”), gave rise to
Lamm
(lamb) because fatness suggested the sacrificial mutton, and also to
Selig
(blessed), apparently on the theory that good eating was a form of blessedness. Out of
Lamm
has come
Lämmle
(a diminutive), and out of
Selig
two common Jewish names,
Seliger
and
Seligman
. The formation of surnames by the addition of some form of -
son
to a father’s given-name was as common among the Jews as among Christians. In German -
sohn
was used and in the Slavic languages -
ice, -ovice
or -
ovitch
. Many surnames were also made by the additions of diminutives to given-names,
e.g., -ig, -ich, -el, -la, -lein, -ing
and
-ung
. Not infrequently phonetic change showed itself, as when the guttural
ch
of
Chayim
became
k
in
Keim
and
h
in
Hein, Heineman, Heyman
and
Hyman
. Many Russian, Polish and Rumanian Jews assumed such Germanized Jewish names at the time of the first big immigration to America from Eastern Europe. The German Jews were here before them, and had won to a respected position, and it seemed good policy to seek the shelter of that position. Says Jane Doe in a paper entitled “Concerning Hebrew Names”:
1
By that time …
Goldstein, Weinberg, Schoenberg
, etc., were considered by the Jews themselves to be Jewish names. Where the newly arrived immigrants from Slavic countries had borne Slavic names there they took German names here. At any given period of Jewish history some branch of Jewry plays the aristocrat. At that time the aristocrat was the German Jew.
The assumption by Jews of well-known non-Jewish names is sometimes protested by the bearers of the latter; indeed, even Jews of the older stock have been known to object, as happened, for example, when a Philadelphia dentist named
Isaac Solomon Cohen
began subscribing himself
I. Solis Cohen
, the patronymic of an ancient and honored Jewish medical family of that city. Again, there was an uproar from the
Cabots
of Boston when, in 1923, a Russian Jew named
Kabotchnick
2
denized there, gave notice that he had shortened his name to
Cabot
,
3
and another in Baltimore in 1941, when a Dr. Henry Lyon
Sinskey
proposed to adopt the name of
Sherwood
, to the disquiet of a rich oil man of that name. But such objections, when they are taken into court, seldom profit the plaintiff, for under American law a man has a right to change his name at will, though it is common for a would-be changeling of any means to ask the countenance of a court of record, that there may be no trouble thereafter about voting rights and the conveyance of property.
4
The
Solis Cohens
, in fact, were advised that restraining
Dr. Cohen was impossible under Pennsylvania law, and they did not go to court. The
Cabots
went and lost.
1
In Baltimore the complaining
Sherwood
seems to have scored a sort of dog-fall, for on November 19, 1941, Judge J. Abner Sayler, sitting in the local Circuit Court, approved the adoption of
Sherwood
by one of the
Sinskey
children, a young lawyer, but refused to approve its use by the father, who was still
Sinskey
in 1947.
Once a new name has been recognized, whether by judicial approval or by common consent, it becomes as much the bearer’s possession as his original name, and may be used and defended in all situations in which the latter may be used and defended. This was decided in 1923 by Judge Learned Hand, then a Federal district judge in New York, in the case of the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation
vs
. Samuel Goldwyn. Goldwyn, who was born
Gelbfisch
and later called himself
Goldfish
, changed his name to
Goldwyn
in 1918, and as
Goldwyn
rose to fame and wealth as a movie magnate. But he lost control of the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation to others, and when, in 1923, he resumed making pictures and launched a screen version of “Potash and Perlmutter” on
Broadway, the corporation got a temporary injunction against him, and he was ordered to credit the production on his billing to
S. G. Inc
. On the hearing of an application to make the injunction permanent Judge Hand vacated it, with the provision, accepted by Goldwyn, that he should add “not connected with Goldwyn Pictures Corporation” to all his public announcements. The learned judge’s decision said:
