Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-02-13
EVENING STAR.
AMERICAN CHANGES OF NAMES.
From Household Words

In Europe, attachment to q family name
| sacred sentiment If l. has been ren dere,
eminent by an individual, or even reput.bl
by succession Of honest bearers, few youl,
change it, even if they could. 1t may not b.
| euphonious; yet We are endeared to il for III,
sake of those by whom il was borne before us
! II may not be celebrated but we hOpe q
preserve Il unsullied 1t may have been dis
graced; and, in that case, we resolve 70 re
deem it from the stain. Even when its cha 2,
for some other brings an increase Of WORLDLY
| wealth, We feel that the donor who has coupled
his gift with the hard condition of displacine
our own patronymic by HE, has " flched from
us our good name," and we think that we pay
high price for our good fortune. In fact i
Is only IN very rare instances Of some gross in
| diyidual infamy, that families abandon their
cognomen, except il compliance with the con.
dltlon OF some valuable Request that forces the
change upon an heir or a egatee
| But who in the (old) world would ever, un-
| der aoy circumstances, think of changing his
| Christian name for any other whatever2
Here are few examples from the yearly
list published by the Legislature of Massachu
| sette L should like to have each individual's
head subjected to chronological examination
to ascertain if it would bear out my notion Of
| the respective characters Of those name-chan-
| gers. The following eight would show, rer.
hapS, vainglorious prido, dashed with great
| efTontery:
| James Colbert takes the name of Colbert
Mortimer; Caleb c. WOodman that of Emer-
| son Mortimer; HsEan r Fitz that of Hszin
Wellington, Lyman Cook becomes Lyman
Van Buren,; DiOdate Coon takes the name
OF Dlodate Calhoun; John Pickard that of
Daniel Webster; Noyes ecker that of Edw' i
Byron, and John Lawrence that of George
Washington.
Every one will understand the motive cf
| such choice-if choice was to be made-of
! names so gilded with historic and literary
fame as those Of Mortimer, Wellington. Wash
lngtoD, and Byron But many, many English
men are not aware that there are, or have re-
Gently been, in existence, American po,i;i.aI
celebrities called Van Buren,. Webster, and
Calhoun.
Polly Woodcock drops q syllable, ani be-
comes Polly Wood and Alice Bottomly, from
motives OF dellcacy, L presume, alters the
spelling of her surname to Bottomiee
But no particular tasto for melody can have
Influenced the spinsters following:
Anna Maria Bean, who becomes Eliza
Patch.
Valeria Pew, who becomes Mary Pew
Serenetha Goodrich, " Mary French
TTyphen Van Buskirk, who becomes Fran
ces Colin
Miss Clara Frinck cannot be blamed for
changing TO Clariss& Wilson, or Abby Craw
Moore, DeTdamia Finncy, OtheaIda Busk, and
the Widow Naomi Luddington, are unexcep-
tloEabiy elegant and need no change; yet
changed they are to other as CancifIl appeiia-
tlons. What could have induced Mrs Betty
Henderson (no second marriage giving cause)
to change to Betty Grimes! Or where was the
occult motive that influenced Philander ia
c0bs to change to Philanler Forrest; Ossian
D0olittle q Ossian Ashley Jeduthan Calden
to Albert Nelson; or Allan Smith to 60 to the
very end Of the alphabet and become Allan
lizard,
Under sunjfy Qnfathomab!e influences h.
race Fish and his wife, Rhuhemmah, take the
surname ct Tremont: Curtis Squires that of
PemeIoy NJ )ntague; William II Carlton that
lngeb0r Anderson; George HOskiss that OF
Geo. Puffer. John Jumper shows good taste
in becoming simple John Mason
Daniel Ames merely changes letter, and
is Daniel Emes DR.. Jacob QQackenbush,
finding his name Gnwieldy, sinks a couple Of
sy.la6les and the quack at the same time aud
Is transformed to Jacob Bush, NJ D. Nahan-
iel Hopkins, bet king himself to rural life, 1
suppose, becomes Syivanus Hopkins But /
cannot perceive what john C0gsweI gains
except additional trouble) by inserting two
more very unmusical IHOnOsyllables, and De-
coming John Beare Doane CUgswell
| am sorry to perceive that come Irishmen
have been infected by the epidemic; and
while renoUCcinS their country, try to get lid
Of their national distinctions For instance,
Patrick Hughes changes to William Hughes
Timothy Lesry changes to Theodore Lyman
Mason Mclaughlin becomes Henry Mason; and
six other persons OF his namo following bis
bad example, a whole branch # the family
tree of the McLoughlin's is loopei cf.
As pendant 10 this anti-national picture,
a group of five Bulls abandon the honest Eng
lish patroDynic of their common father, John,
and degeHerateIy changes it to Webster.
good excuse may exist fer the family of
Straw, the man Of it, as we'll as his wife and
seven children Cynthia, SophiIia Elvina,
Diana, SophrOnia, PheliSta, and Ofestus) for
becoming SO many NileseS; while another,
called Death, petition Through member cali
ed Graves) and are metamorphosed into Mr..
and Mrs and Misses Dickeuson Masters
Ashael G lothian p and Abel S., their sons,
also change from Death to Dickenson; out.
strange to say, retain their yillainous preno-
mems and unmeaniDg initials
One Mr.. WormToOd, with some fun in him,
asks to be allowed to change his name for
some other @ certain" as he says, THAT no
member Of taste will Opposeihis request"
Another individual, Alexander Hamilton,
also petitions for leave to change, on the double
ground of the inconvenient length Of seven
syllables in writing or speaking Ia true 90
head Iankee) and on his inability to sup
port the dignity OF name 80 famous in his
tory" 1t must be observed that this smart
mechanic did not refers to the Conquerer of
Darius, but to the greatest Alexander be had
ever heard of, Hamilton, Secretary Of the
Treasury to Washington and l only hope
(fOr the sake Of American amour prOpre) that
a portion Of my readers may know who is
meant.
To these instances of ever-shifting altera-
tiOns, may add one of Miss Hogg who be-
came Miss Howard of another, highly es-
timable family, the CrOwinshields, of Marble
head whose original name was Grunsel; and
| still another, the former Thinkers, who are the
present Buckinghams. So much for them!
In looking at this scanty number of exam.
| pies, and rejecting that such arbitrary
changes are every year taking place over the
whole extent of the Union TO a very large
| amount, we may imagine, apart from the alb
| surdity of the custom, the confusion and mis-
| chief it occasions. Yet, however strange i,
appears to us, it is, perhaps, more wonderful
that. considering the facility of the operation,
it is still not Oftener practiced. 4 recent
American tells US Of a family in the town o,