The Jews make these changes with extraordinary facility for two reasons. One of them I have mentioned — their desire to get rid of the two handicaps of foreignness and Jewishness at one clip. The other lies in the fact that they have borne their surnames, taking one with another, for less time than most Christians, and thus have less sentimental attachment to them. “Surnames became general among them,” says Dr. H. Flesch,67 “only toward the end of the Eighteenth or at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. In the years 1782–83 the Jews in Austria were compelled by law to assume surnames. In Frankfort-on-the-Main the same rule was prescribed by the edict of September 30, 1809; in Prussia by order of Hardenburg, dated March 11, 1812; and in Bavaria by the law of 1813.” “In Austria,” says C. L’Estrange Ewen,68 “the commissioners appointed to select the designations looked upon the occasion as a harvest, and, when insufficient financial consideration was forthcoming, bestowed most unpleasant appellatives.” He gives, among others, these examples: Bettelarm (destitute), Eselkopf (ass’s head), Fresser (glutton), Gal-genvogel (gallows-bird), Geldschrank (money-chest), Karfunkel (carbuncle), Küssemich (kiss me), Rindkopf (cow-head), Saumagen (hog’s pauch), Schmetterling (butterfly) and Veilchenduft (scent of violets). To these many of the -stein names might be added: Goldstein (goldstone), Edelstein (precious-stone), Einstein (one stone), and so on.69 The Sephardic or Spanish Jews whose surnames are much older, seldom change them, even in America: the Cardozos, daSilvas, Fonsecas, Abarbanels, deCassereses and Solis Cohens are as proud of their patronymics as the Percys or Salm-Salms.70 But the Ashkenazim (German, Polish and Russian) Jews have no such reason for clinging to the names clapped on them. Says Dr. Solomon Solis Cohen:71
Suppose a man’s name to be Israel Weisberg — why should he not become Israel Whitehill? And if it be Jacob Wittkofsky, why not Jacob Witt? Why should any Central European or Eastern Jew burden his children with a lot of useless and generally mispronounced syllables, that seem to flaunt a foreign flavor? There is nothing Hebrew, Jewish or Israelitish about these cognomens. They are German, Polish, Russian, Hungarian, etc. If not changed in spelling they will inevitably be changed in pronunciation. Why not a rational deliberate change?
The literature dealing with English, Scotch, Welsh and Irish surnames is enormous,72 but there is little in print about their permutations in the United States, and that little offers only meager light. The relative infrequency of hyphenated names is obvious; they began to appear on the wave of Anglomania that followed the Civil War, but the ribaldry of the vulgar quickly discouraged them.73 They survive, speaking generally, only among grass-widows and female singers and elocutionists. The former sometimes indicate that they have been liberated from their bonds by prefixing their maiden surnames to their late husbands’ names, with or without hyphens. The latter, when they marry, frequently make similar amalgamations, and at the same time begin to call themselves Madame. A few of the older English surnames have undergone modification in America, e.g., Venables, which has lost its final s. There has also been a tendency to abandon Griffiths for Griffith.74 And where spellings have remained unchanged, pronunciations have been modified, especially in the South.75 Callowhill, in Virginia, is sometimes pronounced Carrol; Crenshawe is Granger; Hawthorne, Horton; Norsworthy, Nazary; Ironmonger, Munger; Farinholt, Fernall; Camp, Kemp; Drewry, Droit; Enroughty, Darby;76 and Taliaferro, Tolliver. Dr. David Starr Jordan, in “The Days of a Man” (1922), tells of a neighbor in Western New York (c. 1860) who spelled his name Zurhorst and pronounced it Zirst, and of others who made Cassia of Kershaw, Shuard of Sherwood and Glasby of Gillespie. To match such prodigies the English themselves have Sillinger for St. Leger, Sinjin for St. John, Crippiny for Crespigny, Weems for Wemyss, Looson-Gor for Leveson-Gower, Kaduggan for Cadogen, Mawlbra for Marlborough, Askew for Ayscough, Marshbanks for Marjoribanks, Po-ell for Powell, Beecham for Beauchamp, Trample-sure for Trampleasure77 Barkly for Berkeley, Chumly for Cholmondeley, Kookno for Cogenhoe, Trosley for Trotterscliffe, and Darby for Derby.78 In general, there is a tendency in America to throw the accents back, i.e., in such names as Cassels, Gerard, Doran, Burnett and Maurice. In England the first syllable is commonly accented; in the United States, the second. This difference is often to be noted in Irish names. “An Irishman,” says Ernest Boyd, the Irish critic, now living in New York, “says Wáddell, Móran, Bérnard, Púrcell, Máhony, etc., but Americans and Irish-Americans stress the last syllable, as in Morán, or the penult, as in Mahóny. Another sea-change in Irish names,” adds Mr. Boyd, “is in the gutturals: Coughlin and Gallagher, instead of being pronounced Cochlin and Gallacher, become Coglin and Gallager, with the hard g.” The Irish in America have not taken to the revived Gaelic name-forms which delight so many of their Landsleute at home. I have searched several American telephone directories without finding any MacSuibhne (McSweeney), OMaolcathaigh (Mulcahy), OSuilleobhain (O’Sullivan), OTreasaigh (Tracy), OMurchadha (Murphy) or MacEochagain (Geoghan).79 The Welsh custom of spelling certain names in F with two small f’s, e.g., ffinch, ffrench, ffarington and ffoulkes has been imitated in England, but not in America: there is not a single example in either “Who’s Who in America” or the Manhattan telephone directory.80 Such forms as John Smith of F and John Jones of William are occasionally found in the United States; they offer a convenient way to distinguish between cousins of the same name. The territorial form seen in Charles Carroll of Carrollton and John Randolph of Roanoke has not taken root; the only recent example that I can think of is Kohler of Kohler. But this is the trade-mark of a corporation rather than the name of a man.81
Any list of American names is bound to show some extremely curious specimens — most of them clumsy adaptations of non-English names, but others apparently of Anglo-Saxon provenance. Frank Sullivan, an eager collector of such delicacies, gives the place of honor in his cabinet to the names of the Misses Dagmar Sewer and Mary Lou Wham. Some time ago one of the large life-insurance companies printed a list designed to show “the colorful variety of appellations which policy-holders bear.” From it I take the following:
Willy Twitty Sello Bibo Christian Girl
Edward J. Bible G. H. Upthegrove Memory D. Orange
Julius A. Suck Chintz Royalty Oscar R. Apathy
Harry B. Ill Barnum B. Bobo Alphonse Forgetto
E. J. Cheesewright John Bilious Henry Kicklighter
Robert Redheffer James A. Masculine William Dollarhide
Julia C. Barefoot Ansen B. Outhouse Ernest Sons
Ralph St. Cathill F. Bulpitt Emil E. Buttermilk
To which may be added a few specimens from Nebraska, collected by two of Dr. Louise Pound’s disciples:82
George Pig Irma Halfway Mary Admire
Eche Rattles George Goatleg Keith R. Catchpole
2. GIVEN-NAMES
The non-British American’s willingness to anglicize his patronymic is far exceeded by his eagerness to give “American” baptismal names to his children. The favorite given-names of the old country almost disappear in the first native-born generation. The Irish immigrants who flocked in after the famine of 1845–47 bearing such names as Patrick, Terence and Dennis named their American-born sons John, George, William and James. The Germans, in the same way, abandoned Otto, August, Hermann, Ludwig, Rudolph, Hein-rich, Wolfgang, Wilhelm, Johann and Franz. For many of these they substituted English equivalents: Lewis, Henry, William, John, Frank, and so on, including Raymond for Raimund.83 In the room of others they began giving their offspring fanciful names: Roy, Lester, Milton and the like. Later on they abjured that madness, and today, save for an occasional Rudolph, Fritz or Otto, their given-names are hardly distinguishable from the general.84
The first Jews to come to America in any number were of the Sephardic moiety; the favorite given-names among them were Solomon, Benjamin, Daniel, David, Elias, Emmanuel, Nathan, Isaac, Nathaniel and Mendes, and these are pretty well preserved among their descendants today. But the German Jews who came in after 1848 were considerably less faithful to the ancestral S
amuel, Jonas, Isaac, Moses, Isidor, Israel and Leon, most of which have been gradually disappearing. In the first American-born generation there were some rather fantastic attempts at substitution, e.g., Morton for Moses, Leo or Lee for Leon, and Seymour or Sanders for Samuel, but in the main the old names were simply abandoned, and American names adopted instead. The later-coming Polish and Russian Jews went much faster and much further. Even the most old-fashioned of them, says Abraham Cahan, changed Yosel to Joseph, Yankel to Jacob, Liebel to Louis, Feivel to Philip, Itzik to Isaac, Ruven to Robert, and Moishe or Motel to Morris as soon as they began to find their way about, and presently their sons burst forth as Sidney, Irving, Milton, Stanley and Monroe. Their grandsons are John, Charles, Harold, James, Edward, Thomas, and even Mark, Luke and Matthew, and their daughters are Mary, Jane, Elizabeth, Alice and Edith. In Baltimore, probably due to Southern influence, Carol and Shirley are favorite given-names for girls among the Polish Jews. In the Middle West, prompted by Scandinavian examples, there are Jewish Huldas, Karens and Helgas. In the New York telephone directory (Winter, 1934–5) I find Cohens male named Allen, Archie, Arthur, Bert, Carl, Charles, Clarence, DeWitt, Edgar, Edward, Edwin, Elliot, Ellis, Ernest, Felix, Frank, Frederick, George, Godfrey, Harry,85 Harvey, Henry, Herbert, Howard, Irving, Jack, Jacques, James, Jerome, Jules, Lawrence, Lee, Lester, Malcolm, Mark, Martin, Marvin, Mathias, Maximilian, Maxwell, Michael, Mitchell, Mortimer, Morton, Murray, Norman, Oscar, Paul, Philip, Ralph, Sidney, Theodore, Victor and William, and Cohens female named Amelia, Annabel, Annette, Bessie, Betty, Birdie, Charlotte, Dorothy, Elizabeth, Emily, Estelle, Ethel, Florence, Gertrude, Helen, Irene, Jennie, Josephine, Lucille, Mae, Mary, Myra, Rae, Renee, Rose, Sophia, Sue and Sylvia. There are but three Moses Cohens, three Moes and one Moise, but there are seven Lawrences, eight Herberts and fifteen Henrys. Among the ladies there is not a single Rachel, Miriam or Rebecca, and the four surviving Sarahs are overborne by three Sadies, two Saras and one Sally.
Any other list of Jewish names would show a similar disappearance of the older forms. I turn to a history of Zeta Beta Tau, the Jewish college fraternity, published in its Quarterly for April, 1931, and find the following given-names among Jews who are otherwise extremely conscious of their Jewishness: Vernon, Lawrence, Clarence, Kay, Randolph, Pierce, Seymour, Lionel, Ernest, Tracy, Willis, Mortimer, Jules, Deane, Allyn, Lazarre, Les and Bert, not to mention Frederick, Edward, George, William, Charles, Harold, Richard, Ralph, Walter, Theodore, Arnold and Alan. In a list including the names of more than 275 members I find but one Abraham and one Samuel, and not a single Moses or Isaac. In another issue of the same magazine is a somewhat spoofish article on current Jewish given-names.86 The authors divide them into three classes, the Biblical, the mercantile, and the baronial. “Examples of the first group,” they say, “though not entirely extinct, have about lapsed into disuse.” The mercantile names “are those of children who are bound to succeed in the world of affairs.”
We find possessors of these names in operators of the cloak and suit industry, and in the smaller towns they are invariably the proprietors of the leading clothing shoppes. Generally, the bearer of a mercantile name, viz.: Julius, Max, Emanuel, Gus or Nathan, is a representative constituent of our most conservative and substantial citizenry. His business continues successfully through two or more generations. He passes important motions at the B’nai B’rith Conventions and at the Conventions of the National Clothiers Association. Horatio Alger’s Julius the Street Boy was probably of Jewish extraction, for his exploits exemplify a protagonist of this type.
The authors divide their baronial group into four subgroups — Anglo-Saxon family names, e.g., Sydney, Melvin and Murray; names taken from the map of England, e.g., Chester, Ely and Hastings; aromatic French names, e.g., Lucien, Jacques and Armand; and surnames of popular heroes, e.g., Lincoln, Sherman and Lee. “The eldest son,” they say, “is Abraham; then in order follow Hyman, Julius, Sydney, Leonard, and finally the élite Llewelyn.” They close with a warning that Jewish given-names begin to grow so incongruous that they may do damage to their bearers.
The owner of the name becomes a misfit because of his styling, and finds it exceedingly difficult to acclimate the man to the name. Wherefore the parents of a child, in bestowing upon him his given designation, should first invoke the gods that be, and then exercise care and caution to give their eight-day-old scion a name that will please him when he reaches an age whereat he has an appreciation of phonetics and an understanding of the association of ideas.
Among the East Side Jews of New York (now mainly translated to the Bronx) any youth showing a talent for music is likely to abandon his original given-name for Misha, Jasha or Sasha, all of them Russian diminutives; and among the younger female intelligentsia Sonia is a prime favorite. But these are probably only passing fashions.
The Latin immigrants to the United States have had even less difficulty with their given-names than with their surnames, and have thus changed them more rarely than the Jews. The Spanish Jorge, José, Juan, Jaimé, Francisco, Manuel, Ignacio, Pedro, Tomas and Antonio have fared pretty well in this country, and in the regions where there is a relatively large Spanish-speaking population they are even pronounced more or less correctly. Occasionally, along the border, Francisco becomes Frank, José becomes Joe, Pedro becomes Pete, and Santiago (not Jaimé) becomes Jim, but Juan seldom if ever changes his name to John, and Jesus (hay-soos, with the accent on the second syllable) commonly sticks to his name, despite the fact that it seems half-ridiculous and half-scandalous to most Americans. María is a frequent given-name for men in Mexico, but it is seldom heard in the American Southwest. Sometimes it is changed to the more masculine Mariano, and sometimes it is quietly dropped for something else. Manuel and Ignacio are never changed.87 Manoel is a favorite given-name among the Portuguese, and the first-born son almost always bears it, just as the first-born daughter is Maria. But in the New Bedford region the Portuguese immigrants commonly change Manoel to Manuel, and Maria to Mary. Other frequent changes are from José to Joseph or Joe, from Francisco to Frank, from Lourenço to Lawrence, from João to John or Jack, from Rafael to Ralph, from Guilherme to William or Bill, from Pedro to Peter, from Margarida to Margaret or Maggie, from Ignês to Agnes, from Amélia to Emma, from Ana to Annie, and from Izabel to Lizzie, Betty or Elizabeth.88 Among the Rumanians, similarly, Ioan becomes John, Marin becomes Martin or Marian, Dǎnilǎ and Dumitrue become Daniel or Dan, Mihai becomes Mike, Gheorghe becomes George, Florea becomes Frank, Floarea becomes Florence or Flora, Cataline becomes Katie, Maria becomes Mary, and Lina, rather curiously, becomes Helen.89 The Italian given-names fare pretty well in the United States. Most Americans call any strange Italian Joe or John, but it does not outrage them to discover that his real name is Antonio, Andrea, Carlo, Bartolomeo, Uberto, Nicolo, Tomaso or Vincenzo. Giuseppe, Giacomo and Giovanni, being harder for them, are commonly changed to Joseph, Jack and John. In the second generation almost every Vincenzo becomes a Vincent, every Riccardo a Richard, every Giuseppe a Joseph and every Tomaso a Thomas, but the influence of the priests keeps the Italians, like the Mexicans, from venturing into the gaudy nomenclature of the Jews. The charming Italian names for women, e.g., Antonietta, Bianca, Carlotta, Costanza, Letizia and Giuliana, show signs of surviving in America: they are sometimes, though still rarely, borrowed by Americans of the older stocks. The Scandinavian names, in the main, are likewise under only light pressure, e.g., Gustaf, Erik, Olof (or Olaf), Nils, Anders, Magnus, Gunnar, Axel, Holger, Knut, Jens, Harald and Henrik. Hjalmar is sometimes changed to Elmer or Henry, and Sven to Stephen, but the rest appear likely to survive. So do some of the Scandinavian women’s names, e.g., Hedvig, Sigrid, Helma, Magdalene, Ingeborg and Karen (or Karin). But a great many of the Scandinavians born in this country, of course, bear “American” names. The present Governor of Minnesota (1935) is Floyd B. Olson, and his Secretary of State is Mike Holm. However, it should be noted that the B in Governor Olson’s name stands for Bjerstjerne,90 and th
at among the other Olsons and Olsens in “Who’s Who in America” are a Nils, an Ingerval, a Karl, a Carl, an Ernst, two Oscars and two Juliuses. The Finns abandon their native given-names much more willingly. Most of the children born in this country are given “American” names, and even among their elders Kalle and Kaarlo are commonly changed to Charley or Charles, Jussi and Juhana to John, Matti to Matthew, Jaakko to Jack, Taavetti to David, Yrgö to George, Antti to Andrew or Andy, Kerttu to Gertrude, Maija to Mary, Lilja to Lillian, Elly to Ellen and Aili to Aileen. The ineffable Elmer often displaces Ilmari and Raymond takes the place of Reino. For Väinö the common substitute is Wayne. Sometimes a Kalle, on changing his name to Charley, finds the combination of sounds impossible, and must make shift with Sali. Similarly, a Liisa, Americanized to Lizzie, calls herself Lisi, for there is no z-sound in the Finnish phonology. But she writes it Lizzie.91
It is the Slavs whose given-names suffer most sadly in the Republic. Whatever his own wishes in the premisses may be, every Pole named Stanislaw must resign himself to being called Stanley by his neighbors, and every Sztefan must consent to become a Steve. In the same way Czeslaw is changed to Chester, Vladislaw to Walter, Vatslaw to Wallace, Piotr to Pete, Grzegdrz to Harry, and Kazimi-erz to Casey, and, among women’s names, Miechyslawa to Mildred and Bronislawa to Bertha. So, too, the Russian Michayil becomes Mike, his brother Andrey becomes Andy, and his cousin Grisha joins the Polish Grzegdrz as Harry. All Ivans, of course, quickly become Johns. Among the Ukrainians nearly every Wasil (a popular name in the Ukraine) becomes William, though Basil would be a better equivalent. In the case of Hryhory (Gregory) transliteration beats translation, and it becomes Harry. Other common changes are from Volodymyr (the Russian Vladimir) to Walter, from Andrey (Andrew) to Albert, from Bohdan to Daniel, from Myroslav to Myron, from its feminine form, Myroslava, to Marilyn, and from the lovely Nadia to the banal Hope.92 Monsignor J. B. Dudek has described at length the slaughter of Czech given-names. When they show any resemblance to “American” names, as in the cases, for example, of Jan, Petr, Tomáš, Antonín and Marie, they are quickly displaced by the “American” names. In other cases they are translated, as when Vavřinec becomes Lawrence and Bohdanka becomes Dorothy. In yet other cases there are arbitrary changes to quite unrelated “American” names, as when Vaćlav, which means crowned with a wreath, becomes James or William, and Vojtěch, which means the leader of an army, becomes William or Albert. Says Monsignor Dudek:
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