Question about a Hebrew last name

[Jack]

I should have changed my name to 'Ludwig.' Then people
would read my publications.

I read them.

[hyldemoer]

I changed my name to 'Jim Stone' from a pretty bizarre
name--did it in my mid-30s. The fast, middle, and last
name were abandoned. I couldn't use the old
name without spelling it every time.

Now it only remains for me to write an amazing memoir.

When I was born my parents gave me a cutie pie name that is usually used as a nick name derived from a more formal name.

Its been my guess that either they never expected me to survive childhood or they never thought I'd be more than a mindless airhead.

Over the years a lot of people have assumed my given name was only a nick name and, perhaps by judgement of my nature, would address me by the more formal name my cutie pie actual name might have been derived from.

I can't tell you how many people upon learning that my given first name was my actual name would comment that my name was such a cute name
and then add that they at some time had a favorite pet dog named that name.
<sigh>

In my early 20's I changed my legal first name to a more formal version of nick name derived from the same formal name my birth given name was derived from.
I'm still addressed on occasion by the longer more formal name but I've yet to have met a dog who shares the name I use now.

[djm]

Talk about the "name that is named is not the name named when named as the name ...." etc. Why not just out with it, else why bring it up?

djm

[Lambchop]

Personally, I like my name. Even if it does make some of you salivate.

[dwinterfield]

Cynth:

From my wife's relatives in Isreal

Oz in Hebrew means courage, the ability to overcome fears. Amos Oz, in this act of changing his family name, like some other writers and intellectuals of his era, wanted to symbolize the new spirit of a "new Jew", especially after the holocaust, in a nation of the Jewish people, as if to say, we are here, a new couragous generation, speaking the Hebrew language, living in a free country, independent and strong enough to defend ourselves, so that there will never be another holocaust.

[gonzo914]

I was not born gonzo914; I was born in the low 800s. But people kept asking me if I was Frankish, so I changed my surname to 914. Now people keep asking me if I'm from Yonkers.

I should have been somewhere in the 950s, but I was sick for a few years.

[Cynth]

Cynth:

From my wife's relatives in Isreal

Oz in Hebrew means courage, the ability to overcome fears. Amos Oz, in this act of changing his family name, like some other writers and intellectuals of his era, wanted to symbolize the new spirit of a "new Jew", especially after the holocaust, in a nation of the Jewish people, as if to say, we are here, a new couragous generation, speaking the Hebrew language, living in a free country, independent and strong enough to defend ourselves, so that there will never be another holocaust.

Thank you, dwinterfield. The comments of your wife's relatives are interesting and very helpful. There had been a lot of fearfulness in his life, not just from the war in 1949 in Israel (I might not have this quite right) but also because of some very difficult family situations that the family didn't talk about. He seemed to feel he needed to be a new person for himself as well as Israel so he went to a kibbutz when he was just 15 which definitely took courage because he came from a quite unphysical environment so he had a lot to learn. He seems to have made a good life for himself and I'm glad. I just got another book by him in Des Moines, but I'll have to order the others it looks like.

[Lorenzo]

I changed my name to 'Jim Stone' from a pretty bizarre
name--did it in my mid-30s. The fast, middle, and last
name were abandoned. I couldn't use the old
name without spelling it every time.

Now it only remains for me to write an amazing memoir.

Not inclined to share it?

Never!

My given name was, along with being unpronounceable,
positively Messianic.

You mean like Shepard? Shepard Ames Saslaw?

[brewerpaul]

I recently read a book about how Jews in America adopted "white" names so frequently in the 1700s and 1800s and that's why there are so many modern American Jews named Christopher Jones or Susan Smith.?

Don't think many of them are still doing it today. Two people I went to Podiatry school with got married and instead of taking the husbands name very Eastern European sounding, changed it to something much more pronounceable (in fact, it's the name of a whistle maker ) Their rationale was that it would be very difficult for patients to remember their name, and knowing their "maiden name" I'd have to agree.

The names of MANY Jews and others were changed involuntarily when they got to America. Immigration officials at Ellis Island would see a 12 letter name with strange characters and accents and would tell them "That's too difficult for Americans to pronounce. Now, your name is Cohen) or some such thing. I know my own name has changed over the years, but I've been unable to find out what it was orignially in the old country.

[Loren]

The names of MANY Jews and others were changed involuntarily when they got to America. Immigration officials at Ellis Island would see a 12 letter name with strange characters and accents and would tell them "That's too difficult for Americans to pronounce. Now, your name is Cohen) or some such thing.

If I had a Dollar for everytime I've had to explain this.....

Stranger upon hearing my last name: "I know what someone in your familiy used to do!"

Me: "No, you don't........"


Considering both my first and last names, no one here is getting any sympathy from me


Loren

[Cynth]

I recently read a book about how Jews in America adopted "white" names so frequently in the 1700s and 1800s and that's why there are so many modern American Jews named Christopher Jones or Susan Smith.?

Don't think many of them are still doing it today. Two people I went to Podiatry school with got married and instead of taking the husbands name very Eastern European sounding, changed it to something much more pronounceable (in fact, it's the name of a whistle maker ) Their rationale was that it would be very difficult for patients to remember their name, and knowing their "maiden name" I'd have to agree.

The names of MANY Jews and others were changed involuntarily when they got to America. Immigration officials at Ellis Island would see a 12 letter name with strange characters and accents and would tell them "That's too difficult for Americans to pronounce. Now, your name is Cohen) or some such thing. I know my own name has changed over the years, but I've been unable to find out what it was orignially in the old country.

This is a sort of interesting short article on name-changing. I really don't know how authoritative it is and unfortunately the link in the article isn't working. It was written, I think, to help people track down ancestors so it might have something to it.
http://www.genealogy.com/88_donna.html

My ancestors were Swedish and at some point one of them changed his last name from Quick to Ekstrom. No one knows why. Did people tease him because of the English meaning? I suppose that could get tiresome. But there could be reasons I have no idea about.

[burnsbyrne]

My grandfather changed his last name from Byrne to Burns when he emigrated from Ireland. Don't know why.

My wife's brother, of the LDS persuasion, changed his first name from Armando to Jay when he became a US citizen. He said it was because Armando is too hard to say (? ?) but I think it has something to do with secret rituals he performs in the Morman temple. How many Italian Mormans do you know?
BTW, Jim Stone. Although my name is Burns, I ALWAYS get asked how to spell it.

[Jack]

How many Italian Mormans do you know?

None. But I know a few Italian Mormons.

Mormons have one of the most successful cases of evangelism period. They've only been around for 150 years, but today there are Mormons on every continent and nearly every country on earth (I don't think Saudi Arabia has any).

[burnsbyrne]

How many Italian Mormans do you know?

None. But I know a few Italian Mormons.

Mormons have one of the most successful cases of evangelism period. They've only been around for 150 years, but today there are Mormons on every continent and nearly every country on earth (I don't think Saudi Arabia has any).

Thanks for catching the spelling error. It's time for my nap. Mormans there are in Italy but only a drop in the bucket. When Jay realized we lived near Kirtland, Ohio, a very important stop on the Mormons' road west, and that there were so many LDSers around here he couldn't get his visa fast enough. And he was legal, too. Shortly after he established residence he found himself a Mormon woman and had six kids. Living the LDS life in America!

[Jack]

How many Italian Mormans do you know?

None. But I know a few Italian Mormons.

Mormons have one of the most successful cases of evangelism period. They've only been around for 150 years, but today there are Mormons on every continent and nearly every country on earth (I don't think Saudi Arabia has any).

Thanks for catching the spelling error. It's time for my nap. Mormans there are in Italy but only a drop in the bucket. When Jay realized we lived near Kirtland, Ohio, a very important stop on the Mormons' road west, and that there were so many LDSers around here he couldn't get his visa fast enough. And he was legal, too. Shortly after he established residence he found himself a Mormon woman and had six kids. Living the LDS life in America!

I hear there is even one Quaker in Italy.*



*A fact that not many people know is that most Quakers in the world (150,000) live in Kenya.