The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1910-12-20
CHANGED NAMES
ARE INCREASING.
Courts Disagree as to Mans
Right to Alter COgnOnen.
HISTORY SHOWS PRESIDENTS

Dante, Rembrandt, Erasmus and Vol
taire Among Famous Men Who Drop
ped Given and Family AppeIlations.
Time Responsible For Such Changes
as Shocks For Sevenoaks.
New York men in some number have
appeared In local courts recently ask
ing the law to change their names Is
there some connection between this
and the alarming encroachments Of
the suffragettes? Most probably it
was retaliation led these men to pilfer
the exclusively feminine privilege.
The male. is not expected in midlife
suddenly to begin signing a new name
to his checks, putting another name on
his shingle or new initials to- his
paJamas and seal rings.
The man who filches this alien pre-
negative must feel as if he were
marrying without discomforts. What
with the court procedure, the legal
formalities and announcements. Paul
Kelly, one Of the men instanced. must
have felt as If he were being divorced,
for Kelly had been Vaccarelli until he
was knighted Kelly as better BETTING
the pugnacity of a budding pugilist.
Now he has regained his maiden
name," with an absolute decree of
separation.
One of the judges in these recent
cases ruled against citizens common
law right to try on new names as ii
they were hats. The other upheld that,
regardless of courts, a man may call
himself names If he likes, may chris
ten, baptize, libel or misspeIl himself
to his hearts content The precedents
are strong in history that men have
renamed as women marry, some for
social station, others to inherit wealth
or for the love of it, as Mark Twain,
or out of compulsory and stern neces-
sity, as the alias gentry.
Time Changer of Names.
Some names viii change, given time
enough, though all the kings men leg
islate to the contrary. There are fam
lily names that crumple up after years;
they just deliquesce. Such are the
English Marchbanks, crumbled from
the orotund Marjoribanks, and old
Cholmondeley come down to Chum-
ley. Squire Seyenoakes that was to-
day is Mr.. Shocks, an awful petering
out.
1t is well that the legal restrictions
to remedying cognomen are few in
country where there is no regula-
tIon of christenings and where some
mighty heathenish Christian names
assassinate the happiness of youth. 1t
was in this country the printer lived
who called his firstborn "Imprimis,"
his second '.Finis," but third came,
to be indexed Appendix" and a
fourth 'Addendum.' There was moth
ing left for the fifth but "Eratum"
Consider the nicknames, from limp
to "Rat.'D The law should make it
easy for such victims to try again.
If you are born in France, French
law forbids your being designated by
any name other than one warranted
by previous use by a hero or saint
The limitation is not serious. The sup
ply of heroes may give out, but not of
saints. Travellers need only recall the
inhabited facades of French cathe-
drals.
People of the Latin countries feel
safest from the stroke of disaster
when well lightning rodded with
saints names. How does the Por-
tuguese prince speak of himself? AL
phonso Henry Napoleon Maria Louis
Peter Of Alcantara Charles Humbert
Amadeus Ferdinand Anthony Michael
Raphael Gabriel Gonzago Xavier Fran
els of Assist John Augustus julius
Volfondo Ignatius of Braganza, Savoy,
Bourbon, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Changed Names Make History.
Some of the grandest historical
names are inventions, or at least modi-
fcations, by their owners Moliere,
founder of modern comedy, invented
that word. probably. and has survived
in it. Durante Alighieri found himself
obliged to choose from the spellings AL
digeri, Alaghieri and Aligeri, so he was
signed himself Dante. A Dutch painter
won fame too great for so bourgeois
name as ''Herman's Son" to bear; he
changed it to Rembrandt van Ryn or
Rim, which is aristocratic and mouth
filling and warrant in his having been
born beside one Of the hundred mouths
of the Rhine.
Geert de Praet had son called sim
ply "Geert's Cert" The boy became
the greatest scholar of the middle ages,
dignified himself as "Desiderius Eras-
mus" meaning the "Doubly Desired, !"
apparently a fling of defiance at those
who would sneer at his bar sinister
"Arouet" is not a bad name; it has a
subtle suggestion Of acerbity, which
should have gratified the great French
satirist who bore it, but he anagram-
med It inaccurately into "Voltaire, =
which has blotted out his born patro-
Aymic.
Genius worked out these names for
itself; their greater fitness to connote
their owners Is proved by posterity's
preferring them to the legal originals.
Likewise it is hard to see why any
Dingwaller or Pfizger should not, If he
desires. discard his label altogether, be
a torefather Of a family and literally
make name for himself.