Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1901-01-29
HOW NAMES CHANGE.
ONE REMARKABLE CASE OF REPEATED
TRANSLATION.

A Young German-Hebrew named lisa.
dore Feuerstein landed In New York
with plenty of energy, but no money.
He was the first one to leave the emi-
grant ship, and In an Incredibly short
space of time he had sold his mattress
and other luggage and had invested the
proceeds In box of cigars. When his
companions on the voyage walked upon
the wharf thev were amazed to see
Young Feuerstein already installed In
business, and he actually offered his
newly-purchased goods to them as they
stepped upon the shores of America.
With care and shrewdness he saved
enough money from the sale OF cigars
to purchase small lot Of goods, and,
with pack on his back, he travelled
through New York state. He encOunt-
cred English.speakiug people and rapid
| ly acquired knowledge Of the English
language. II you know anything of the
German tongue you need not be told
that Feuerstein means flint and that 1t lie
pronounced as though spelled Foyers-
TEN. The young fellow noticed that
people did not get the twsng OF his name
and gave 1t sort OF free translation,
and called 1t FirestOne. Having learned
considerable of the English language,
he determined II there was any trauslat-
| ing to be done he would do It properly,
and so henceforth he took the name of
Flint. He travelled further on, amassing
wealth on his way, until he reached
German settlement where he settled
down and opened bank account In the
name of Isadore Flint.
But the people of the town, being a
curious lot and noticing his German ac-
cent, said among themselves: "This
young mans name Is not Flint. That is
not German name. What can 1t be?
What Is the nearest to Flint? Why 1t
must be Finite, with the accent on the
last letter. The addition of that final
'e' made great difference In the mean
ing of the young mans name, for Finite
In German means n hunting gun. But,
being of an obliging nature, he deferred
to the discernment of the people and
thereafter sign, d his name Finite. But
Americans and others who know moth
| ing of German could not be expected to
know that the fiual letter was accented,
and so whenever they saw the name
written or printed they naturally pro-
nounced it rs though spelled Fleint.
This WAS too much for Isadore, and 80
he determined to Anglicize the last name
that had been given him, and thence
forth and forever be done with further
translations. In pursuance of his re-
solve he called himself and signed his
name Isadore Gun, and as Issdore Gun
he lived and died, and host Of descend
ants bear his name. Imagine the diff
Guilty one unacquainted with these facts
would have In tracing back the ancestry
of the Guns.
OF course, the translations Of emf
grants names have not always proved
such tortuous task. The derivation of
tie names of many about US are obvious.
The ROsedales were originally Rosen-
thals, the Bloomingdales were Blumen-
thals, the Greentrees were Greenbaums,
the Liverrights were Lebrechts and so
on. Some, through ignorance Of the
language on the part of their ancestors,
have had their names translated incOr-
rectly. The true patronymic of a
clothier named Livingstone is Loewen-
stein. That last name correctly trans
posed into English would be Lionstone,
but he who did the translating misspell.
ed the German name so as to make 1t
spell Lebenstein and then properly
Anglicized that into Livingstone. Many
of the Lions and Lyons Of to-day were
originally Loewes.-Philadelphia Times.