The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1911-01-05
CHANGED NAMES
ARE INCREASING
Courts Disagree as to Mans
Right to Alter COgnOmen.
HISTORY SHOWS PRECEDENTS

Dante, Rembrandt, Erasmus and VOL
taire Among Famous Men Who Drop
ped Given and Family Applications.
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 Entertainments 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 single or new initials to his
pajamas and seal rings.
The man who filches this alien pre-
rOgative 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 u citizens common
law right to try on new names as if
they were hats. The other upheld that,
regardless of courts, man may call
himself names if he likes. may chris
ten. baptiZe, libel or misSpell 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 will change. given time
enough. though all the kings men leg
islate to the contrary. There are fam
lily names that crumple up aftersyears;
they just deliGuesce. Such are the
English Marchbanks. crumbled from
the orOtund MarjOribanks, and old
Cholmondeley come down to Chum-
ley. Squire SevenOakes that was to-
day is Mr.. Shocks, an awful petering
out
1t is well that the legal restrictions
to remedying a cognOmen are few in
a country where there is no regula
ton of christenings and where some
mighty heathenish Christian names
the happiness of youth. 1t
was in this country the printer lived
who called his frstborn "Imprimis."
his second "Finis,' but a third came.
to be indeXed Appendix" and a
fourth "Addendum." There was moth
ing left for the fifth but "Eratum."
Consider the nicknameS. from Imp"
to rat 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- |
trails.
People of the Latin countries feel |
safest from the stroke of disaster |
when well lightning rodded with |
saints names. How does the Por- |
-uguese prince speak of himself? AL
,honso Henry Napoleon Maria Louis
Peter of Alcantara Charles Humbert |
Amadeus Ferdinand Anthony Michael |
Raphael Gabriel Gonzago Xavier Fran
is of Assist John Augustus Julius |
'olfondo Ignatius of Braganza. Savoy, |
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Changed Names Make History.
Some of the grandest historical |
James are inventions, or at least modi-
lcations, by their owners. Moliere, |
ounder of modern comedy. invented
hat word, probably, and has survived
n it. Durante Alighieri found himself
bliged to choose from the spellingS AL
igeri. Alaghieri and Aligeri. so he was
igned himself Dante. A Dutch painter
yon fame too great for so bourgeois a
anne as "Herman's Son" to bear; he
hanged it to Rembrandt van Ryn or
tijn, which is ariStocratic and mouth
Hing and warrant in his having been
Orn beside one of the hundred mouths
f the Rhine.
Geert de Praet had a son called sim
ly "Geert's Cert" The boy became
he greatest scholar of the middle ages.
ignified himself as "DeSideriuS EraS-
nus meaning the "Doubly Desired"
pparently fling of defiance at those
Tho would sneer at his bar sinister.
is not a bad name: it has
ubtle suggestion of acerbity, which
hould have gratified the great French
atirist who bore it, but he anagram-
led it inaccurately into "Voltaire."
'hich has blotted out his born patro-
ymic
Genius worked out these names for
self; their greater fitness to connote
heir owners is proved b. posterity's
referring them 10 the legal originals.
likewise it is hard to see why any
I1n, ~. obD,,1J not hn !