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    Changing your name to something more Anglo-Saxon

    My family did this, in the early 20th century. I think we changed ours ahead of the Saxe-Coburg's, so it's not like we were just doing it to keep up with the Jones's on the other side of the hedge.

    It turned out that the name Weinschenke was problematic among the Europhobic hoi polloi of Britain, and it was expedient to anglify it to the much more Anglo-Saxon Bernardhinault.

    #2
    I kind of wish my family had changed mine to something less Anglo Saxon, or Proto-Germanic at least. I've always had to spell out my name when introducing myself. But that's as much to do with my poor enunciation as it is with the fact that there's basically nobody in the country with the same name (except for one erstwhile famous guy, but for some reason that doesn't help).

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      #3
      Doesn't matter what country I'm in, always have trouble getting people/banks/airlines/anyone at all to spell my surname correctly. V-A-N L-A-E-R. Yes, A then E. YES.

      The first letter from the bank etc. arrives. Check the spelling: VAN LEAR. Sometimes VANLAR. Or any combination of the letters I carefully spelled out, except for the right fucking one. Sometimes it feels like it really would be easier to be called Smith, but then it's also quite smart having a name that pretty much no-one else (outside of Belgium and The Netherlands) seems to have. Weirdly, when my Mum worked at Heathrow, there was another Ms. Van Laer on the BA staff roster. Not in any way related to us though.

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        #4
        Someone changed it from Hegarty to Hagerty. Most disgraceful.

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          #5
          Originally posted by JVL View Post
          Sometimes it feels like it really would be easier to be called Smith,
          It really isn't when you are lumbered with the problem of having two forenames but being known from birth by the second of those two names. Dealing with cheques made out to what you are known as rather than your actual name is just the start of it.

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            #6
            My great grandfather had his name changed from Conneely to Connolly at Ellis Island, yet they kept the original in Irish. As far as I know, my surname may exist in every language. I'm named after one of the two dominant colours of this fucking planet.

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              #7
              Don't knock it. It's a damn fine surname.

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                #8
                Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post
                My great grandfather had his name changed from Conneely to Connolly at Ellis Island, yet they kept the original in Irish. As far as I know, my surname may exist in every language. I'm named after one of the two dominant colours of this fucking planet.
                Aquamarine? Magnificent name.

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                  #9
                  My name is anglo-saxon anyway.
                  Annoyingly in the world of Brexit, I can't find anyone in either side of my family who isn't straight down the line Anglo Saxon.

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                    #10
                    Mine is also a Saxon bi-name.

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                      #11
                      My father’s uncle (the first of the family to land on these shores) got the usual treatment at Ellis Island (vowels and diphthongs added, diacritical marks stripped), but then my aunt decided to make things worse by Germanicising the spelling with the goal of appealing to the heavily German bourgeoisie of Allentown, Pennsylvania.

                      She even had the audacity to change the spelling on my grandfather’s grave marker a year or two before she married a guy from a “good German Family” and took his name.
                      Last edited by ursus arctos; 26-04-2018, 12:01.

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
                        My family did this, in the early 20th century. I think we changed ours ahead of the Saxe-Coburg's, so it's not like we were just doing it to keep up with the Jones's on the other side of the hedge.

                        It turned out that the name Weinschenke was problematic among the Europhobic hoi polloi of Britain, and it was expedient to anglify it to the much more Anglo-Saxon Bernardhinault.
                        On a point of order I doubt you could possibly HAVE a more "Anglo-Saxon" name than Saxe-Coburg. It's right there in front of you...

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by JVL View Post
                          Sometimes it feels like it really would be easier to be called Smith
                          Yeah, for about 15 minutes, until which time you'd heard all the standard-issue quips and witticisms.

                          "Well, that's easy enough to spell, isn't it...ha ha."

                          "Smith? Is that John and Mrs Smith...heh heh."

                          "Well, that's not very original, is it?"

                          etc.

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by hobbes View Post
                            My name is anglo-saxon anyway.
                            Annoyingly in the world of Brexit, I can't find anyone in either side of my family who isn't straight down the line Anglo Saxon.
                            This. Mine's even Northern Anglo-Saxon.

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                              #15
                              My paternal family name came over from Ireland in the 19th century but it is pretty common and there is an identical English derived name.

                              Sits has given me a Stingray earworm.

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                                #16
                                My father’s uncle (the first of the family to land on these shores) got the usual treatment at Ellis Island (vowels and diphthongs added, diacritical marks stripped), but then my aunt decided to make things worse by Germanicising the spelling with the goal of appealing to the heavily German bourgeoisie of Allentown, Pennsylvania.

                                She even had the audacity to change the spelling on my grandfather’s grave marker a year or two before she married a guy from a “good German Family” and took his name.


                                Holy shit. That's really messed up.

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                                  #17
                                  You're telling me.

                                  I used to be seriously outraged about this, and would periodically vow to get my grandfather (who died more than a decade before I was born) a new grave marker, but eventually gave up on that when no one else in the family seemed troubled by it.

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                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by Benjm View Post
                                    My paternal family name came over from Ireland in the 19th century but it is pretty common and there is an identical English derived name.

                                    Sits has given me a Stingray earworm.
                                    Stand by for action!

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                                      #19
                                      Anything can happen in the next half-hour...

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                                        #20
                                        My Grandfather did the opposite of this. Probably. Well, almost certainly. Prior to WWII there was a family in Coventry, name of Crowther, with a son in his late teens. At the end of the war, said family had a young man living with them who claimed to be a shot down Norwegian airman, now living in Britain. No further reference was made to the entirely English boy who had been there a few years earlier.

                                        When it came to naming his children, have gave them all very standard English names apart from his second son, for whom, in a fit of inspiration, he picked Toralf Jan. He came to regret this when said son married a genuinely Norwegian woman. Who obviously tried to speak Norwegian to her new father-in-law, supposedly a countryman of hers. Except he couldn't, claiming he had forgotten it all!

                                        Exactly where he dredged the name he gave himself up from is anyone's guess. It's extremely rare in Denmark, and even rarer in Norway, where he claimed it came from. And he got the spelling wrong, not massively so but enough that no other family in the world (that I or google knows of) shares the surname spelt in that manner.

                                        That is the Walter Mitty side of my family. The other is just as unusual, but in a rather bleaker central European mid-20th century tragedy sense.

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                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by Capybara View Post
                                          It really isn't when you are lumbered with the problem of having two forenames but being known from birth by the second of those two names. Dealing with cheques made out to what you are known as rather than your actual name is just the start of it.
                                          I have this issue too. Out of four of us, I have the middle name thing, one sister also has the middle name thing, and our brother switched to his middle name deliberately, around the age of 30. Only the other sister keeps things simple by using her actual first name.

                                          I also have a surname that is potentially a first name (more commonly in America), and inevitably when (as checking into a hotel last night, for example) someone says 'name?' and I give my surname, they'll say 'and the surname?'.

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                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by Capybara View Post
                                            when you are lumbered with the problem of having two forenames but being known from birth by the second of those two names. Dealing with cheques made out to what you are known as rather than your actual name is just the start of it.
                                            I share my first, third and surname with my father. And we had the same initials for our second name. And almost identical signatures, which caused the occassional problem before I moved out...

                                            He was always known by his first name, and I've always been known by my second. Except in the world of officialdom...

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                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by WOM View Post
                                              Yeah, for about 15 minutes, until which time you'd heard all the standard-issue quips and witticisms.

                                              "Well, that's easy enough to spell, isn't it...ha ha."

                                              "Smith? Is that John and Mrs Smith...heh heh."

                                              "Well, that's not very original, is it?"

                                              etc.
                                              Tons of Smyths in Ireland somehow.

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                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by Capybara View Post
                                                It really isn't when you are lumbered with the problem of having two forenames but being known from birth by the second of those two names. Dealing with cheques made out to what you are known as rather than your actual name is just the start of it.
                                                I can tick that box too - I'm the fourth VL to have the same first name. My Dad happily went by that name but apparently when I was a kid, I decided that I wanted to be known by my middle name. Which, as you point out, causes all sorts of fun and games with banks. And airlines. Although it wasn't such a problem with plane tickets until fairly recently, but last year I was nearly refused permission to board a flight back from Canada because one initial was missing on the ticket, so I've learned my lesson there...

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                                                  #25
                                                  I have a French (Huguenot) surname, which is completely unpronounceable by any Scots, apparently. Probably by most English too come to that. Actually most of you on this forum would recognise the surname, but that's a story for another time. It's not obviously Anglicisable, and although my kids hate it, as one has to spell it out in all its three-separate-word glory every bloody time. I tell them that they will come to appreciate it in time....
                                                  My mum, on the other hand, was born with a good northern English surname (Hopkinson), but throughout her life had no less than six different (officially recognised) surnames and two completely different sets of 'given' names to boot. Made obtaining her death certificate (and ensuing probate) quite interesting....

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