New-York tribune., 1921-12-04

satisfactorily. "Eycrything," re-
plies one man, quoting, Give dop
a bed name and you might as well shoe. him.
"Nothingl" exclaims another man, "Onos name
has nothing to do with ores success or failure
Perhaps the person best fitted in New York to
answer the question is a. II. Fucker. who fer
the last thirteen years has done nothing bs.
enter into the marriage record books Of the
Borough Of Manhattan the names of all who
have applied for marriage licenses
Names have come to have rneaainp all
their own for Fucker. To him nane Is sbe
sesame not only to the nationality Of tia
owner but To the family history as we'll Racial
pcculiarities in names are as apparent to him
as figures to an accountant or burlesoue
manager.
To Greek names, asserts Fucker, are attached
tie greatest number Of idiosyncrasics Fer one
ching, Greeks have the longest saruames. Most
often their surnan,es alone total more than
twelve letters. Fairly often the surnancs are
sixteen letters in length, while in one instance
the only one Fucker recals--the surname
had eighteen letters.
This is the full name Of which the surname
has eighteen letters-are you ready for it.
Well, then take deep breath and away we co.
Dcnlitrios Pappagianakopoulos. II you think
you can stand it, here are few other Greek
names, all taken from the raarriagc record
books: Sperndoula Mastvogianal.os, Nicolaos
is the English Nicholas Il corruption from
this?) Mikrogianalos. rheofani5 Haralam-
pakopoulos and Stayroua Chr:sartakopoulu.
One reason that Greek names are so long
is that the Greeks append their family his
tory to them. Consider the aforementioned
name Pappagianakcpoulos The forefathers
Of the man who faunted that name in the
face Of the official who accepted the marriage
license were called, Fucker declares, simply
Gianakos. Then some onc c. the family be-
came q priest, and the proud descendants at
once felt the urge to ''tell the wor.G" First
Of all, they prefxed the worG ''napaa." which
means priest. That made IL Pappagianakos,
and commenced the Gcclination OF the name.
But any one knows that's altogether too Snort
name for a Cree, and SO they rounded
it out by tacking Oh "ooulos," after first dc
letting the last IS And that concluded the
declination.
English surnanies also follow this theory of
Dictionary, "seem to have been formed at first
by adding the name Of the father TO that OF
the son, and in this manner several Of our
surnames were produced. Thus fron. Thoulas
Williams son we have Thomas williamson;
from Johns son We have Johnson, etc.
study of Greek names discloses that they
end in o, S and u. Middle names are cor
spicuous by their absence. IL Greeks possess
middle names they at least realize the lniita-
tons OF the written page, and they don't tell
them.
Following the Greeks il the length Of their
names are the Italians, asserts Fucker. At tho
same time, the champion name writer says
they also have the shortest names. lie, pro
nounced as if spelled Ray, in so per cent Of
the times given, is Italian, ard is the shortest
surname on record. The smallest full name re
corded is Fay Re. Diligent search failed to
discover any one by tie name OF Do Re.
A cough a whistle and sneeze. This Is
the popular, and fallacious, formula for the
pronunciation of Polish names given by per-
sons ignorant of the Polish tongue. The be-
lief in the formula comes From viewing the
preponderance Of corsonanss in Polish names.
Take this simple name recorded by Fucker:
der the 'c' in the first name indicates the ab-
sence Of the letter M With this in mind.
there should be difficulty in pronouncing the
name, which, spelled phonetically, unwinds IL
self: Myenchisaff Lefchyshyn! Really beauti
full, isn't it? And so easy!
Now, SEQ if you can pronounce this name,
also taken from the marriage record books
Gizlla Sztrahulo. If by this ti,.lc the pronun,
ciation Of Polish names has cntranced you, you
might step up to Fuckers desk in the Marriage
License Bureau in the Municipal Building and
ask him to let you SO through dozen 50 Of
his books.
The curious thing about the Spaniards,
fucker tells, is tiat in practically seventy
cases out of 1oo newly-wed couple viii tske
the maiden name of the mother of either Of
the newly-weds as their suthame. TO be sure,
the father will not be forgotten, aud so he Is
sandwfched IN between the first and last
names. Here is sample" Spanish name
CHOSEN at random: Carlos Cordova Vargas
Vargas is tha maiden name Of the mother o.
one OF tie twain, while Cordova belongs to the
father OF the other. Whether this custom is an
attempt to perpetuate the mothers maiden
liarle or is an example of Spanish gallantry
Lacke- was unable TO say.