The courier-index., 1920-05-21
ALTER NAMES TO
 AVOID RIDICULE
Washington Lawyer Says Busl- ness Has Been Hummng
 Ever Since War.
MANY GERMAN NAMES SHED
Some Are Turned Into English Equivalents and Others Are Re- placed by Plain American Names
 -slmpIe to Make Alteration.


 Washington.--A young man dropped into a lawyers office here the other day.
 q want to change my name" he said sadly. I'm a locksmith. l have my name on the door--B. Ware--and customers are always cracking jokes and pretending to be afraid of me. People even come in just to make silly puns and take up my time.p
 "Why don't you write your first name out7" suggested the attorney.
 "Oh, that would be worse. My names Barry Ware-it sounds like bow-wow."
 The lawyer drew up a petition for the young man, to be called Barry Ward. and in three weeks the change was effected to the clients joy.
 Many German Names Changed.
 The lawyer who told us this story says business in changing names has been humming ever since the war. Families who had been in this coun- try for four generations, and who prided themselves on their American qualities, woke up in 1916 and 1917 to find their German sounding pat ronymics were regarded with disfa- vor, if not with suspicion. There was just one remedy, and a great many took It. German names were legally turned into English equivalents, or were replaced by plain American Smith, Carter or Johnson.
 In some cases, owners of German names desired changes as means of showing they were not hyphenated Americans. In others, 1t was matter of business. Such names as Kaiser and Hindenburg, the owners stated, were injuring their trade, as Amerf- cans regarded them as German firms and were prejudiced by war associa- tions
 Names besides those of German sound sometimes have an undesir> able effect on business. Such names seem to be discarded by their owners in greater numbers than ever before. These are chiefly the masterpieces of the Russian, Greek, Italian and Slavic languages Some of these combina- tions contain the best part of the al- phabet and defy pronunciation, let alone spelling.
 Occasionally clever man makes capital of peculiar name, as the man named Easum, who once adver- tised "Easum's pills" all over town. But as a rule the odd name which sug- gests amusing comparisons Is regard ed as something to put up with, like awkward hands or stiff neck.
 Most names brought to court for re- vision are surnam,s Now and again, however, Christian name which has worried the owner, like an old man of the sea- is happily discarded. It is hard to get the point of view of par ents who give their children ridiculous names merely to gratify an overde- veloped sense of humor.
 Father's Little Joke.
 A governor of a certain state, by name Hogg, will always be remen- bered for the fact that he named his two daughters Ina and Ura. At least one of these girls. we are told. mar ried early, thereby spelling the point of the fathers little joke.
 Still more outlandish is the record in British history of father who de- sired to name his child Beelzebub. When the boy was brought to church to be ehristened the bishop refused to beatow the name upon him, saying it wnr not a fit name to be sanctioned by the church.
 31ie process of changing an unde- sirable name Is simple. Here in Wash ington all you have to do is to file c petition with the Supreme court of the District of Columbia, saying 1t wastes too much of your friends time to call you by your proper name, or whatever reason you may have for the change. You must swear that you arc not abandoning your old name to avoid debts or any demands, against you. Then you have a notice of the newspaper once week for three weeks At the end of that time, if nobody comes forward to object-and nobody ever doee-the court formally grants your petition and you 90 forth with whatever name you have picked out. Considering how easy it is we wonder that there are so many people with names that are unmelodious to say the least.-Frederic A. Haskin, in Chicago Daily News.