American Language

by H. L. Mencken

  35 Gypsy Fires in America, by Irving Brown; New York, 1924, pp. 20 and 38.

  36 The Swedish Surname in America, American Speech, Aug., 1928.

  37 Days in Sweden, by James W. Lane, Commonweal, Sept. 9, 1931.

  38 I am indebted here to Mr. John A. Stahlberg, of Plentywood, Mont.

  39 The Religious Aspects of Swedish Immigration; Minneapolis, 1932, p. 427.

  40 I am indebted here to Mr. Wallace Lomoe, of the Milwaukee Journal. He says that when several cadets of the House of Toycen went into the World War, their comrades pronounced the name as spelled, and that this pronunciation has been retained. But the other Toycens call themselves Tyson. Mr. Lomoe’s own name was originally Lömoe. It is commonly pronounced LaMoe, with the accent on the second syllable.

  41 See Norwegian Surnames, by George T. Flom Scandinavian Studies and Notes, Vol. V. No. 4, 1918.

  42 I am indebted here to Mr. Reino W. Suojanen, editor of Walwoja, Calumet, Mich., and to Mr. Ivar Vapaa, editor of Industrialist, Du-luth, Minn.

  43 For material and suggestions here I am indebted to Mr. Guiseppe Cautela of Brooklyn, N. Y., and Mr. J. H. A. Lacher of Waukesha, Wis.

  44 Mr. Hugh Morrison of New York, who has a wide acquaintance among Mexican-Americans, says that he knows of but two who bear “American” names. One of them, born Pérez, is now Peters; the other, a full-blooded Indian, is Jim Anderson.

  45 I am indebted here to Mr. George Stanculescu, editor of the American Roumanian News, Cleveland.

  46 I am indebted here to Mr. João R. Rocha, proprietor of O Independente, New Bedford, Mass., and to Mr. Peter L. C. Silveira, editor of the Jornal Portugues, Oakland, Calif.

  47 I am indebted here to Mr. Charles J. Lovell, of Pasadena, Calif.

  48 See La Langue française au Canada, by Louvigny de Montigny; Ottawa, 1916, p. 146, and Name Tragedies, by C. P. Mason, American Speech, April, 1929, p. 329.

  49 A Tragedy of Surnames, by Fayette Dunlap, Dialect Notes, Vol. IV, Pt. II, 1913.

  50 French Surnames in the Mississippi Valley, American Speech, Feb., 1934.

  51 I am indebted here to Dr. Nicholas M. Alter of Jersey City; to Mr. Hugo Kormos, editor of the Magyar Herald of New Brunswick, N. J.; to Mr. Henry Miller Madden, of Columbia University; to Dr. Joseph Remény, of Western Reserve University; and to Mr. Joseph Yartin of New York.

  52 At this writing Mr. Ecker-R is attached to the Federal Emergency Relief Administration at Washington. “The abbreviation,” he tells me, “was adopted in consideration of others, and to protect myself from some interesting variations in spelling. The R does not, as the Washington Star is wont to interpret, stand for Republican.”

  53 The Syrians in America; New York, 1924, p. 101. I am indebted here to Dr. Hitti and to Mr. H. I. Katibah, editor of the Syrian World of New York.

  54 I am indebted here to Mr. R. Dar-binian, editor of Hairenik, Boston, and to Dr. K. A. Sarafian, of La Verne College, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

  55 This last, on occasion, is a heavy burden, for there is always more or less Anti-Semitism afloat. Its causes remain to be investigated. The reasons for it that Jews commonly accept are almost as dubious as those advanced by anti-Semites. The literature of the subject is very large, but virtually all of it is worthless.

  56 See The Jews, by Maurice Fish-berg; New York, 1911, especially p. 485 ff. Also, Reaction to Personal Names, by Dr. C. P. Obern-dorf, Psychoanalytic Review, Vol. V, No. 1, January, 1918. This, so far as I know, is the only article in English which deals with the psychological effects of surnames upon their bearers. Abraham Silberer and other German psychoanalysts have made contributions to the subject. Dr. Oberndorf alludes, incidentally, to the positive social prestige which goes with an English air or a French air in America. He tells of an Italian who changed his patronymic of Dipucci into de Pucci to make it more “aristocratic.” And of a German bearing the genuinely aristocratic name of von Landsschaffshausen who changed it to “a typically English name” because the latter seemed more distinguished to his neighbors.

  57 The English Jews, who pronounce Levy lev-vy not lee-vy, often change it to Lewis. They also change Abraham and Abrahams to Braham and Bram, and Moses to Moss. Taylor and Gordon are favorites among them. There are many London Jews with Scotch names, including even MacGregor.

  58 For these observations I am indebted to Mr. Abraham Cahan.

  59 In 1923 the Boston Cabots sought a remedy in equity against a Kabot-chnick who had borrowed their name, but the courts decided against them.

  60 Zeta Beta Tau Quarterly, April, 1931.

  61 Long List of Books Written by Boston Jews, by Fanny Goldstein, Boston Evening Globe, May 23, 1934.

  62 In New York, of course, Bernstein is Boinsteen, just as Stern is Stoin.

  63 The German names containing ei sometimes retain the German value and sometimes do not. Schleigh is commonly pronounced sly and Reiter remains ry-ter, but Reif-schneider and its variants, Reif-snyder and Reifsnider tend to become reef. Weigand(t) is commonly Wee-gand. Soon or late, I suppose, even Reilly will become Reel-y, at any rate in New York.

  64 When Herbert H. Lehman became a candidate for Governor of New York in 1932 his banking firm announced that he pronounced his name leeman. New York Times, Oct. 5, 1932.

  65 Which recalls the Ginzberg in Anita Loos’s But Gentleman Marry Brunettes (1928) who, following the example of the Battenbergs (now Mountbattens), changed his name to Mountginz. Another, according to Miles L. Hanley (American Speech, Oct., 1933, p. 78), became Gainsborough. Other variants are Ginsburgh, Guinsburg, Guinzburg, Ginzbourg, Gins-bourgh, Ginsbern, Ginsbury and Gins.

  66 Question of Assumed Names Passed On In Goldwyn Suit, Variety, Oct. 25, 1923, p. 19.

  67 Place-Names and First-Names as Jewish Family-Names, Jewish Forum, April, 1925.

  68 In A History of Surnames of the British Isles; New York, 1931, p. 213.

  69 Ewen tells of two Jews who compared notes after visiting the police-office. One had drawn an excellent name, Weisheit (wisdom), but the other had been labelled Schweisz-hund (bloodhound). “Why Schweiszhund?” demanded Weisheit. “Didn’t you pay enough?” “Gott und die Welt,” replied Schweiszhund, “I have given half of my wealth to buy that w alone!” The Jews themselves have a vast repertory of such stories. I borrow another from the London Jewish Daily Post, June 27, 1935, where it is credited to George Sokolsky’s We Jews: A Mrs. Selby was introduced to a Mrs. Levy at the bridge-table. “Are you related,” asked Mrs. Levy, “to the Selbys of Sydney?” “No,” answered Mrs. Selby, “the Sydney Selbys are Silverbergs, while we are Schneiders.”

  70 Some years ago the Solis Cohens of Philadelphia, a family distinguished in medicine, took action against a Jewish dentist who sought to assume their name. During the first days of the immigration of Jews from Russia many of them, on arriving in this country, borrowed German-Jewish names. (Many others, of course, had them already). “At that time,” says Jane Doe in Concerning Hebrew Names, Reflex, Nov., 1928, “the aristocrat was the German Jew.” Some of the English Jews had surnames long before those of Germany and the Slav countries. See Name List of English Jews of the Twelth Century, in The Jews of Angevin England, by Joseph Jacobs; London, 1893, p. 345 ff. Not many English Jews ever came to the United States.

  71 In a memorandum prepared for the author, April 25, 1925.

  72 See A Bibliography of Writings on the English Language From the Beginning of Printing to the End of 1932, by Arthur G. Kennedy; Cambridge (Mass.), 1927, pp. 57 ff, 149–50, 187, and 332 ff. The best work on the subject is A History of Surnames of the British Isles, by C. L’Estrange Ewen; New York, 1931.

  73 They arose in England through the custom of requiring an heir by the female line to adopt the family name on inheriting the family property. Formerly the heir dropped his own surname. Thus, the ancestor of the present Duke of Northumberland, born Smithson, took the ancient name of Percy on succeeding to the underlying earldom in the Eighteenth Century. But about a hundred yea
rs ago heirs in like case began to join the two names by hyphenation, and such names are now very common in England. Thus, the surname of Lord Barrymore is Smith-Barry, that of Lord Vernon is Venables-Vernon, that of Lord Saye and Sele is Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, and that of the Earl of Wharn-cliffe is Montagu-Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie. The name of Vice-Admiral the Hon. Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, K.C.B., C.B., D.S.O., R.N., brother to Lord Dunsany, the Irish writer, would ruin him in the United States. So would that of Walter Thomas James Scrymsoure-Steuart-Fothringham, a Scotch magnate.

  74 According to Howard F. Barker (Surnames in -is, American Speech, April, 1927, p. 318), “the defection from Griffiths dates far back.” In Who’s Who (London), 1935, there are 16 Griffithses to 27 Griffiths, whereas in Who’s Who in America, 1934–35,the 21 Griffiths are matched by but 3 Griffithses.

  75 See Word-Book of Virginia Folk-Speech of B. W. Green; Richmond, 1899.

  76 A correspondent writes in explanation of this amazing pronunciation: “The family, having rather unwillingly had to change their name to Enroughty to secure an inheritance, balanced up by continuing to pronounce their original name — Darby.”

  77 See The Trampleasures, Time and Tide (London), June 29, 1935.

  78 A long list is in Titles and Forms of Address; 2nd ed.; London, 1929, P. 15 ff.

  79 My thanks are due to Mr. Boyd for help here. He tells me that in Gaelic names the O is never separated by an apostrophe. It is always either written close up or separated clearly, as in Sean O Murchadha. In the latter case it is not followed by a period.

  80 See Two Little f’s, by Trevor Davenport-ffoulkes, London Sunday Times, April 22, 1934.

  81 The Kohler Company of Kohler, Wis., manufacturers of plumbing materials. The president of the company, Walter J. Kohler, was Governor of Wisconsin, 1929–30.

  82 Curious Names, by Mamie Meredith and Ruth Schad Pike, American Speech, Feb., 1928.

  83 My own given-names may throw some light on the process. They are Henry Louis. I was named Henry after my father’s brother. Their mother was Harriet McClel-lan, who came to Baltimore from Kingston, Jamaica. She was of North Irish stock and a member of the Church of England. Henry seems to have been borrowed from some member of her family. I was named Louis after my paternal grandfather, but his actual given-names were Burkhardt Ludwig. I gather that it was at first proposed to call me Henry Burkhardt, but that there was some objection to the Burkhardt, probably from my mother. So a compromise was made on Ludwig. Its harsh sound, whether pronounced in the correct German way or in the American way, caused further qualms, and it was decided to translate it. But the clergyman employed to baptize me wrote it Louis in his certificate, and so I acquired a French name. It was, of course, always pronounced Lewis in the family circle. I have often thought of changing it to something more plausible, but have somehow never got to the business.

  84 Carl has been adopted by Americans of other stocks, and such combinations as Carl Gray (a railroad president born in Arkansas), Carl Williams (a farm-paper editor, born in Indiana), and Carl Murphy (the founder of the Baltimore Afro-American, a leading Negro newspaper) are common. A feminine variant, Karle, has appeared, and I suspect that Carl has helped to popularize Carlyle and Carleton. Simon Newton (see the World Almanac for 1921, p. 150) sought to determine the most popular American given-names by examining 100,000 names in biographical dictionaries, Army and Navy registers, Masonic rosters and the Detroit City Directory. He found that John, William, James, George and Charles were the most popular, in the order named, but that Carl was thirty-eighth, and ahead of Ernest, Michael, Lewis and Hugh, all of which would have been far above it on an English list.

  85 In Berlin, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. IX, p. 157, Harry is now monopolized by the Jews, and so are Jacques and James. All, it will be noted, are non-German names. But two old German names, Ludwig and Julius, are also greatly in favor. See N. Pulver-macher: Berliner Vornamen; Berlin, 1902.

  86 On Naming the Boy, by Earl L. and Samuel G. Winer, Zeta Beta Tau Quarterly, Dec., 1926, p. 7.

  87 I am indebted here to Mr. Hugh Morrison of New York, who lived long among Mexicans in the West. He says he knows one sensitive immigrant who changed his given-name of Jesús, to Josú “to escape smirks.”

  88 I am indebted here to Mr. Peter L. C. Silveira, editor of the Jornal Portugues of Oakland, Calif., to Mr. Charles J. Lovell, of Pasadena, and to Mr. João R. Rocha, proprietor of O Independente, New Bedford, Mass. Mr. Lovell’s investigations show that among the Sylvias, a numerous Portuguese-American tribe, the four names, Manuel, Joseph, John and Antone, account for 47.3% of all males.

  89 I am indebted here to Mr. George Stanculescu, editor of the American Roumanian News, Cleveland.

  90 If he spelled it out it would probably cost him some votes. Years ago a Norwegian tramp-steamer, the Björnstjerne Björnson, named after the celebrated contemporary of Ibsen, used to trade to Baltimore. The stevedores, baffled by the name, reduced it to Be-jesus Be-johnson.

  91 For aid here I am indebted to Mr. Ivar Vapaa, editor of Industrialisti, Duluth, Minn., and to Mr. Reino W. Soujanen, editor of Walwoja, Calumet, Mich.

  92 I am indebted here to Mr. Emil Revyuk, editor of Svoboda, the Ukrainian daily of Jersey City, and to Mr. Vladimir Geeza, editor of the New Life, of Olyphant, Pa.

  93 The Americanization of Czech Given-Names, American Speech, Oct., 1925. A list of “American” equivalents of Czech given names, apparently for the use of readers desiring to make changes, is printed annually in the Cesko-Americký Kalendář issued by Katolík, the Czech semi-weekly published by the Benedictine Fathers in Chicago. It is full of unconscious humors. Thus it gives Patricius and Paddy for Vlastimil but not Patrick, Bess, Betsy and Betty for Alžběta but not Elizabeth, and Nell and Nelly for Helena but not Helen.

  94 In the same way the Lithuanians in America have developed Džióvas for Joe. See Einiges aus der Sprache der Amerika-Litauer, by Alfred Senn, Sudi Baltici (Rome), Vol. II, 1932, p. 47.

  95 American Greek, American Speech, March, 1926. I am also indebted to Mr. T. D. Curculakis, of Athens.

  96 I am indebted here to Mr. H. I. Katibah, editor of the Syrian World.

  97 Here I am indebted to Mr. Ernest Boyd.

  98 Names of Graduates of the Carlisle Indian School, 1889–1913; Carlisle, Pa., 1914.

  99 Private communication. See also Indian Personal Names from the Nebraska and Dakota Regions, by Margaret Kennell, American Speech, Oct., 1935.

  100 Simon Newton’s study, summarized in the World Almanac for 1921, shows that John occurs 8280 in every 100,000 individuals, William 7611 times, James 4259, Charles 4253, and George 4171. Following come Thomas 2710, Henry 2366, Robert 2303, Joseph 2266, Edward 1997, Samuel 1628, Frank 1570, Harry 1112, Richard 1027, Francis 1003, Frederick 1000, Walter 970, David 967, Arthur 904, Albert 862, Bem-jamin 833, Alexander 748, Daniel 690, Louis 658, Harold 531, Paul 512, Fred 509, Edwin 500 and Andrew 485. Raymond is in forty-ninth place, with 244 occurrences, Elmer is sixty-first with 174, Chester in seventy-third with 131, Harvey in seventy-ninth with 122, Milton in ninety-fifth with 96. Rather curiously, Washington and Marshall are below Homer and Luther.

  101 In the Driftway, Nation, Feb. 7, 1923.

  102 I am indebted for part of this to Mr. Theodore Long, of Salt Lake City.

  103 See Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature, by Charles W. Bardsley; London, 1880, p. 205 ff.

  104 In Defense of Elmer, New York Herald-Tribune (editorial) Jan. 18, 1935. In the Toronto Saturday Night, March 16, 1935, J. H. Simpson says that Elmer has now invaded Canada. Mr. Simpson also notes the popularity of Earl — a two-syllable word, like fil-lum — “in what might be termed the less sophisticated parts of the United States.” In these parts, he continues, “a peculiar custom is to hold husband-calling contests. One has to hear a Kansas farmer’s wife calling her Earl or Elmer to appreciate the depths to which a so-called Christian name can sink.”

  105 The Geographic Bo
ard has decided that Kenesaw should be Kennesaw, but the learned judge sticks to one n.

  106 For this I have to thank Mr. William J. Foote, of the Hartford Courant.

  107 Dr. Phillips tells me that his given-name is the surname of some of his father’s relatives. His father also bore it. The Z Barney family, once well-known in Chautauqua county, New York, is now extinct there. There is a tradition that the Z is roughly equivalent to the Mac in Gaelic names, but of this nothing is known certainly. C. L’E. Ewen, in A History of the Surnames of the British Isles, says (p. 379) that zeu appears as an element in some Cornish names, signifying black. It has deu, sew and sue as variants.

  108 Private communication, July 22, 1935. Mr. Basshe has since informed me that his first child has been named Emjo likewise.

  109 It stands in forty-second place on the Newton list, with 314 occurrences to every 100,000 individuals.

  110 In Claude and Percy, American Speech, April, 1928, Howard F. Barker quotes the following from an unidentified issue of the Christian Science Monitor (Boston): “Captain Claude S. Cochrane, commander of the Bear and associated with its later adventures, will leave his old ship and go North in command of the Bering Sea patrol-force.… It is said by those who know that he is the only man afloat in the Coast Guard who could afford to admit the name of Claude.”

  111 Language of the Southern Highlanders, Publications of the Modern Language Association, Vol. XLVI, No. 4, p. 1313.

  112 It might profit some aspirant to the Ph.D. to investigate the nicknames prevailing among boys. John Brophy and Eric Partridge say in Songs and Slang of the British Soldier, 1914–1918; London, 1930, that every British soldier named Taylor was nicknamed Buck, and that the following were also almost universal: Darky or Smudge for Smith, Nappy for Clark, Pedlar for Palmer, Tug for Wilson, Spud for Murphy, Dolly for Gray and Dusty for Miller. When I was a boy in Baltimore, c. 1890, every youngster whose father was a physician was called Doc, and any boy whose father had any other title got it likewise. Every Smith was Smitty. Skinny boys were called Slim, fat ones were Fats, and short ones were Shortie. In my gang an extraordinarily obese boy bore the majestic name of Barrel.