American Language Supplement 2 (92 page)

6
Deiler, lately cited, p. 195.

7
Pennsylvania English, by George W. Hibbitt,
American Speech
, Feb., 1939, p. 43.

8
Ladies’ Repository
(Cincinnati), Nov., 1861, p. 691. The story is there credited to “Mr. Livingston in his admirable answer to Mr. Jefferson concerning the
batture
case at New Orleans.” Another version, recorded by Olaf Sölmund in Namen Wandern, New York
Staats-Zeiting
, in 1940, makes the original name of the Scotsman
Freyerstone
.

1
William Wordsworth: His Life, Works and Influence, by G. McL. Harper; New York, 1916; Vol. I, p. 366.

2
There was a wholesale change of German names in England during World War I. King George V led by changing his surname from
Wettin
to
Windsor
by proclamation on July 17, 1917. At the same time the
Tecks
, Queen Mary’s family, changed their name to
Cambridge
, and the
Battenbergs
became
Mountbattens
. Simultaneously the head of the former family, Adolphus Charles Alexander Albert Edward George Philip Louis Ladislaus, Duke of
Teck
, became Marquess of
Cambridge
, Earl of
Eltham
and Viscount
Northallerton
, and his brother Alexander Augustus Frederick William Alfred George became Earl of
Athlone
and Viscount
Trematon
. The
Battenbergs
, whose German titles went back only to 1858, simply translated their surname. The head of the clan became Marquess of
Milford Haven
, Earl of
Medina
and Viscount
Alderney
, and his brother became Marquess of
Carisbrooke
, Earl of
Berkhampsted
and Viscount
Launceton
. Many well-known English families have surnames originally German,
e.g
., the
Barings
(Earl of
Cromer
, Earl of
Northbrook
, Lord
Revelstoke
).
Goschens
(Viscount
Goschen
),
von Donops
, and
Gleichens
.

3
Private communication, Nov. 20, 1941.

1
Private communication, Jan. 1, 1940.

2
But Abraham Lincoln knew how to pronounce
Schurz
, and liked to show off the fact. See Sumner’s “Right Grand Division,” by Darius N. Couch,
Century Magazine
, Aug., 1888, p. 636. The Baltimore
Evening Sun
once observed (Jan. 1, 1941) that while most American music-lovers manage to pronounce
Richard Wagner’s
surname with some approximation to the German fashion, few of them so pronounce his given-name.

3
I am indebted here to Mr. David Otis, of Brooklyn.

4
The World of Sholom Aleichem, by Maurice Samuel; New York, 1943, pp. 275
ff
.

5
This name-changing among the comrades was not due wholly, of course, to a desire to get rid of Jewish names; another, and stronger, purpose was to confuse and throw off the police. Jews and non-Jews alike adopted aliases.
Nikolai Lenin
, for example, was that of a man originally
Vladimir llyitch Ulianov
, and
Joseph Vissarionavitch Stalin
is that of
Iosiph Djagashvilli, Djugashvilli
or
Dzhugashville
. When Earl Browder, then the putative head of the American Communists, was charged with getting a passport under a false name, part of his defense was that “party” names were commonly assumed by members of the party. Many of the Jews among them use English-sounding names.

1
Howard F. Barker notes in Surnames in -
is, American Speech
, April, 1927, p. 317, that
Davis, Harris, Lewis
and
Morris
are also very popular among American Jews, and that the fact may help to account for the high place held by these surnames on American name-lists. The English Jews, on being made peers, always take names that offer no suggestion of their origin,
e.g., Beaconsfield, Burnham, Melchett
and
Reading
.

2
July 29.

3
See AL4, p. 501. The authority quoted here in Dr. H. Flesch: Place-Names and First Names as Jewish Family Names,
Jewish Forum
, April, 1925. He adds that certain Jews took surnames as early as the Sixteenth Century, but that they tended to be variable. “The son,” he says, “did not always retain the father’s surname; with the change of market place or place of residence the surname changed. Thus Akiba
Nausch
from
Neuzze
near Frankfort, had a grandson called Akiba
Lehrer
, from
Lehrensteinfeld;
Tebi
Aschkenasi
had a son called Jacob
Emden
, and Samuel
Kelin
(from
Kolin
) had a son, Wolf
Boskowitz
.”

1
I take these examples from Die deutschen Familiennamen, by Albert Heintze; second edition; Halle a. S., 1903, pp. 66–68. For more see AL4, p. 501.

2
An example is given in AL4, p. 501, n. 2.

1
Reflex
, Nov., 1928, pp. 27–31.

2
United Press dispatch from Boston, Aug. 16, 1923.

3
Cabot
itself does not appear to be a British name, and Ewen does not list it in his History of Surnames of the British Isles. The first American
Cabot
to make a mark on history was George (1751–1823), a politician whose life was written by Henry
Cabot
Lodge the elder; Boston, 1877. The mariner, John
Cabot
, was an Italian whose real name was Giovanni
Caboto
.

4
In England the law is substantially the same as in the United States, but it is customary for a man seeking to change his name to do so by applying for a royal license, which may be obtained as a matter of course by paying a large fee, or by advertising his intention in the newspapers and filing a deed-poll with the clerk of the Supreme Court. The aim in each case is to make it possible for him to continue under his new name whatever property or other rights he had under his old one. It is also possible to have a name changed by act of Parliament, but this is seldom resorted to. A. C. Fox-Davies and P. W. P. Carlton-Britton argued in A Treatise on the Law Concerning Names and Changes of Name; London, 1907, that “from the earliest times the Crown has made the assertion that change of name and the sanction thereof are within its prerogative,” but this was disputed, and indeed disproved, by a writer in the London
Academy
, May 4, 1907. This writer was probably C. L’Estrange Ewen, for the same arguments appear in his History of Surnames of the British Isles, pp. 408–13. Since 1919 the Aliens’ Restriction Act has forbidden any alien to assume a name by which he was not known before Aug. 4, 1914. But exemptions may be granted by royal license or by any Secretary of State. A British subject is still free to change his name as he pleases. For the law in New York see The How and Why of Name-Changing, by Helen P. Wulbern,
American Mercury
, June, 1947, p. 719.

1
The issue of this case inspired a Boston wit to the following parody of a well-known quatrain:

1
The case is reported in
Variety
, Oct. 25, 1923, p. 19.

2
Death notice, New York
Times
, April 12, 1946.

3
Announcement of engagement, New York
Herald Tribune
, Feb. 27, 1946.

4
Wedding notice, New York
Times
, March 3, 1946.

5
Death notice, the same, Feb. 24, 1946.

6
Same, same, Feb. 26, 1946.

7
Same, same, Sept. 7, 1946.

8
Joey
Adams
, author of From Gags to Riches; New York, 1946, says in his book that
Abrams
is his family name.

9
Wedding notice, New York
Times
, Feb. 25, 1946.

10
Death notice, same, April 21, 1946.

11
Baltimore
Sun
, Sept. 8, 1944: “As a rule Army captains do not greet Navy lieutenants with a kiss, but that is what happened in Brisbane recently when two Baltimore brothers, Lieut. Jonas H.
Cohen
and Capt. Norman
Coliver
, met for the first time in 27 months.”

12
Noted in New York by a correspondent who chooses to remain anonymous.

13
Death notice, New York
Times
, April 22, 1946.

14
Same, Baltimore
Sun
, July 11, 1945.

1
Announcement of engagement, New York
Times
, Jan. 24, 1946.

2
Wedding notice, Brooklyn
Eagle
, April 18, 1946; notice of engagement, New York
Herald Tribune
, June 28, 1946.

3
The case of the orchestra conductor, Bruno
Walter
, recorded in his autobiography, Theme and Variations; New York, 1946, p. 89. The change was made before he immigrated to America.

4
Death notice, New York
Times
, Jan. 26, 1946.
Snedeker
or
Snediker
is a Dutch name.

5
Wedding notice, same, Feb. 1, 1946.

6
Death notice, same, Feb. 1, 1946.

7
Both found in the Harvard quinquennial catalogue by Miles L. Hanley and reported in
American Speech
, Oct., 1933, p. 78.

8
Court Circular, London
Times
, Sept. 20, 1945.

9
The author of The Adding Machine, Street Scene and other popular plays. See Current Biography: Who’s News and Why; New York, 1943, p. 617.

10
I am indebted for many of these specimens to Mr. Alexander Kadison, of New York, a diligent collector of onomastic Americana. “It is claimed,” says Dr. A. A. Roback in
Sarah
to
Sylvia
to
Shirley, Commentary
, Sept., 1946, p. 274, “that a characteristically Jewish name is a drawback in the matter of a career. What is meant, of course, is that it is a drawback to be known unmistakably and immediately for a Jew.… [But] the fact probably is that when a Jew appropriates a fancy Anglo-Saxon or Scotch name like
Gainsborough
or
Stewart
the Anglo-Saxons and Scotch dislike him all the more for it.”

11
Seeks to Change Surname, Baltimore
Sun
, Nov. 3, 1927.

12
Obituary in New York
Herald Tribune
, April 17, 1947.

13
Discards
Pulitzer
Name, New York
Times
, Feb. 27, 1947.

14
The last two are from The How and Why of Name-Changing, by Helen P. Wulbern, before cited.

15
Samuel H. Abramson shows in Abramson Blames the Goldbergs,
Canadian Jewish Chronicle
, March 20, 1942, that it also leads in Canada, where it is followed by
Greenberg, Freedman
, or
Friedman, Katz, Levy, Goldberg, Rosenberg, Bernstein
and
Abramson
in order.

16
Cohan
(
e
) and
Coen
are Irish names. Woulfe, in his Irish Names and Surnames, says that the former was originally
O Cathain
or
O Ceochain
and the latter
O Comhdain, O Comhghain
or
Mac Eoghain
.

17
Many other
Cohens
have changed their surnames to unrelated forms,
e.g., Crane
and
Quinn
.

1
Here I am indebted to Dr. Solomon Solis Cohen, of Philadelphia; private communication, May 7, 1937. William B. Ziff says in The Rape of Palestine; New York, 1938, p. 189, that many of the Jews now resettled in Palestine have gone back to Hebrew names. Mr. Gershon Aronsky, editor of the
Palestine Post
(Jerusalem) supplies me with some examples taken from public notices of name changes in the
Palestine Gazette
, 1946. They include
Steinberg
to
Harsela, Perlmutter
to
Dar, Moscovitz
to
Doron, Wasserman
to
Tavor, Braun
to
Bar-On, Gutman
to
Bar-Tov, Hoffman
to
Ben Yaaqov, Lederman
to
Yeredor, Loewenstein
to
Zzr-Ayre, Fischer
to
Ben-Nun, Aronsheim
to
Beit Aharon, Rosenfelder
to
Vared, Miller
to
Sinay, Niedermann
to
Nasi, Bernstein
to
Ben-Horin, Bergenbaum
to
Oren, Weinstein
to
Hagiti
, and
Dudelzak
to
Halili
.

2
Mr. B. G. Kayfetz, of Toronto, tells me that many of these are not American inventions, but are encountered among Jews all over Europe. The forms with German or Slavic suffixes,
e.g., -thai, -sky, -sohn
and
-stein
, were all imported.

3
Lee
is also a favorite with other immigrant groups, and that fact may account in part for its high frequency among American surnames − 156 in every 100,000 of population, which is much higher than its frequency in England. It is adopted in place of difficult German names,
e.g., Liebknecht
and
Lietsche;
common Jewish names other than
Levy, e.g., Leon
, and the Chinese
Li
and Scandinavian
Lie
. In New York the German-Jewish name
Lehman
(
n
) is fast acquiring the pronunciation of
Lee-man
(AL4, p. 500, n. 1); in time it may become simple
Lee
. Already it is common to find
Lees
with Jewish given-names.

1
Abrahamson Blames the Goldbergs, by Samuel H. Abramson, before cited.

2
Dr. Pepys’ Diary,
Journal of the American Medical Association
, Oct. 7, 1944.

3
This appeared in a news story in the Baltimore
Sun
, last page, April 20, 1937.