The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-03-31
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, D. C.
CHANGING NAMES.

|
| office here the other day.
II want to change my name" he
said sadly. I'm a locksmith.
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"
why don't you write your first
name out?" 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.
The lawyer who told us this story
says that 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 that their German-sounding pa
| tronynics were regarded with dis
! favor if not with suspicion. There
was just one remedy, and a great
legally turned into English equivalents.
or were replaced by their American
| Smith, Carter, or johnson.
In some cases, owners of German
| names desired changes as a means OF
| showing that they were not hyphen-
ated Americans. In others, it was a
matter of business. Such names as
Kaiser and Hindenburg, the owners
stated. were injuring their trade. as
Americans regarded them as German
firms. and were prejudiced by the war
associations.
Names besides those of German
sound sometimes have an undesirable
effect. on business, and 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-
lions contain the best part of the
alphabet, and defy pronunciation. let
alone spelling.
A name like Zacharula Panagopoul-
Gus, for instance, is musical and
mouth filling, and in its own country
would place the owner. at no disad-
vantage. But over here, title of
such length is a handicap, and the
last name is usually shortened to
something like Pagas.
Then, there are names of unmistak-
able Anglo-Saxon origin, which are
unfortunately bestowed in individual
| cases, or are in themselves undesir-
able. The name Cheatham, an ex-
ample of the former type, is not I'M
pleasant in sound. and would cause
scientist no annoyance. But lawyer
or merchant with such a name might
be an object of endless chaff.
Occasionally a clever man makes
capital of a peculiar name, as the man
named Easum who once advertised
| "Easum's Pills" all over town. But
as a rule, the odd name which sug-
| geSts amusing comparisons is regarded
as something to put UP with, like awk-
ward hands or a stiff neck.
The majority of names brought to
court for revision are surnames- Now
and again, however a. Christian name
which has worried the owner like an
| old man of the sea, is happily dis
carded. 1t is hard to get the point
of view of parents who give their chill
dren ridiculous names merely to graf
| ify an overdeveloped sense of humor
A governor of a certain state, by
name Hogg, will always be remem-
bered for the fact that he named his
two daughters lima and IRA. At least
one of these girls. we are told, married
early, thereby spelling the point of
| 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 christened the bishop refused
to bestow the name upon him, saying
that it was not a fit name to be sane
| toned by the church.
These are extra ordinary cases, but
! hundreds of children are christened
every year with weird names handed
down as family heirlooms. A boy
labeled Adelbert, Aquilphar, or AL
| phonse may remain so in the nursey,
but when he gets out at school he al
most demands a nickname for himself
and gets it by force or strategy. A
| large number of petitions for changes
in given names are based on the plea
| friends by the name he has to use for
| legal and public purposes.
The process of changing an unde-
sira BILE name is simple. Here in Wash
| ington all you have to do is to file a
petition with the supreme court of the
District of Columbia, stating that it
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
are not abandoning your old name to
| avoid debts or any demands against
you. ThenSyou have a, notice of the
change of name printed in a local
| newspaper once week for three
weeks. At the end of that time, if
nobody comes forward to object-and
nobody ever does-the court formally
| grants your petition, and you go 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.
The lawyer mentioned earlier in
this letter tells as his favorite story
the old British anecdote of a couple
named Rose, who christened> their little
girl Wild. This combination he
says. was voted very pretty by the
! romantic mid-Victorians. But when
| Wild Rose grew up. she met and mar
| ried man named Bull, and Wild
Rose became Wild Bull, to the horror
of her aesthetic friends"
THE record does not show whether
she changed her name or not" the
lawyer finished. 1T was not so easy
in Victorian England as now
| Tell us another" we suggested.
II can't vouch for the truth of this
! one he said reflectively, but I've
heard of q girl whose parents were