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Some people find their surnames embarassing or distasteful, such as Fuchs, Hoar, Fink, Gay, Roach, Peed, Lipschitz. In some cases, they have a different meaning in English than they did in the original language.
Many immigrants to America shortened their surnames, such as dropping the various German prefixes before the surname "Meyer". Many Jewish Americans changed Rabinowitz to Robbins, Cohen to Cowan, and Horowitz/Hurwitz/Herschel to Howard or Harris, Levine/Levy to Lewis, Kaufman to Kay, or Greenberg/Greenspan to just Green. Morgenstern became Morningstar, Casimir became Kashmere, Papadopolous became Pappas, Benedetto became Bennett or Benedict, Boisvert became Greenwood, McGillicuddy became McGill.
I ask this because I’m quite possessive about my name, and strangely enough, everyone in the world with my Surname should be a blood relation of mine. I see name changing as fraud, and that people should keep the Surname they are born with (other than by marriage), and that if someone were to use an assumed name, this could sully the name. I don’t think names should be given out as freely as gold stars.
I know people that have changed their names for less than honourable reasons, and some that would like to, to get away from their family name.
It does cause problems, I have an acquaintance that just can’t be located anymore, (he and his family have changed their family name multiple times, and changed address), it seems like they just vanished.
I don’t know what system you have in the US, but here in the UK it is quite easily done.
So, how do you feel about people changing their name?
Surnames used to change with each generation of Swede. Lars Johansson was the son of Johan [something] and Lars' children would be [something] Larsson (for a boy) and [something] Larsdotter (for a girl). Each generation's surname would be different.
Your surname can be sullied by the legitimate since-birth owner....then what are you going to do? Change your name? How many Mr & Mrs. Hitler's do you know of?
I ask this because I’m quite possessive about my name, and strangely enough, everyone in the world with my Surname should be a blood relation of mine. I see name changing as fraud, and that people should keep the Surname they are born with (other than by marriage), and that if someone were to use an assumed name, this could sully the name. I don’t think names should be given out as freely as gold stars.
I know people that have changed their names for less than honourable reasons, and some that would like to, to get away from their family name.
It does cause problems, I have an acquaintance that just can’t be located anymore, (he and his family have changed their family name multiple times, and changed address), it seems like they just vanished.
I don’t know what system you have in the US, but here in the UK it is quite easily done.
So, how do you feel about people changing their name?
Interestingly, the royal family of the UK - yes, Her Britannic Majesty The Queen's family - changed their surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to "Windsor" back in 1917. Great Britain was at war with Germany and the Royals didn't want a German sounding name.
Here in the US many people changed their names when immigrating because their surname was just too long or too difficult for English-speaking Americans to pronounce. Particularly Polish, Russian, and other Eastern European names. In the case of one of my ancestors, who arrived in Philadelphia about 120 years ago, the immigration officer just misspelled the name by converting a "z" to an "s" (in Germanic languages "s" is pronounced more like a "z" phonetically).
What you describe is the patronymic naming system - where the child's second name (middle name wasn't popular much before 1800) was a variant of the father's first name. Albert van Dyke's son was John Albertson.
The biggest misconception non-Dutch speaking non-professionals run afoul of is the Dutch surname of old. Van Palt and van Pelt are not the same as one is a person and one is a place name. Knowing the difference determines whether or not you will find your ancestor. I can guarantee no Duch child born to Dutch parent in a Dutch community was given an English name such Mary at baptism in the early 1600s.
The Dutch did not adopt the patronym as a middle name, either. This is the reruslt of poorlu written records for Americans. The new name should be written thusly: Dirck Smid [Smith] - that IS providing and IF this man adopted the Smith surname. I find 9 out of 10 times it is the child or grandchild who first uses the English spelling of their Dutch surname. And most of the time it did not occur until the father or grandfather was deceased.
The patronym is not as simple as it seems. In the Dutch Catholic Church is was not uncommon to find a child baptized with the family naaam. In the DRC - almnost to the man, so to speak, the childs name was a opatronym. And there is little matter of reading Dutch records in NY and in Europe. They do not always look alike or read the same. And PA Dutch are German.
I can imagine that reading old Swedish records are just about as much fun.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LIGuy1202
Surnames used to change with each generation of Swede. Lars Johansson was the son of Johan [something] and Lars' children would be [something] Larsson (for a boy) and [something] Larsdotter (for a girl). Each generation's surname would be different.
Your surname can be sullied by the legitimate since-birth owner....then what are you going to do? Change your name? How many Mr & Mrs. Hitler's do you know of?
The Dutch did not adopt the patronym as a middle name, either. This is the reruslt of poorlu written records for Americans.
That's interesting, because in the Netherlands it appears that a patronymic
convention did exist.
Example: The famous artist's full name was Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn. (Literally, Rembrandt Harmen's son of the Rhine River). Rembrandt's son Titus' full name was Titus Rembrandtszoon Van Rijn.
Interestingly, the royal family of the UK - yes, Her Britannic Majesty The Queen's family - changed their surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to "Windsor" back in 1917. Great Britain was at war with Germany and the Royals didn't want a German sounding name....
I think anyone should be able to change their name if they choose.
There are many reasons why people would want to either completely change their name, or even alter the spelling in some way.
Frankly, I can't understand why anyone would feel allegiance to a name.
I don't think you're defined by a name at all, but rather by who you are as a citizen of planet earth, by your character, what's in your heart, and by the kindness of your spirit.
Taking, collecting, and shedding names was more common for humans in the past than the current permanent name assignments of modern times; the names were adopted based on their accuracy and usefulness and identified various stages of life or roles and relationships that the name-owner had.
And what mizela said. Identity is fluid and 'unnameable'.
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And Battenberg was changed to Mountbatten.
