Read American Language Supplement 2 Online
Authors: H.L. Mencken
American Language Supplement 2 (105 page)
As I have noted in AL4
2
the Latin immigrants to the United States have had relatively little difficulty in retaining their often beautiful given-names, though occasionally a Mexican named
Jesús
is constrained to change to
José
or
Joe
in order to allay the horror and check the ribaldry of 100% Americans, or one named
Angel
adds an
o
for the same reason, and thus becomes an Italianate
Angelo
.
3
In the Southwest many American girls have been given Spanish names,
e.g., Dolores, Juanita, Anita
and
Constancia
, and some of these have got into wide circulation, but in compensation the Mexican girls have taken to American names,
e.g., Margaret, Annie, Edna, Lulu
and
Lucile
.
4
In theory, at least, every Mexican girl of pious parents is christened
María
, with the addition of one of the titles of the Virgin Mary,
e.g., María de los Dolores, María del Rosario, María del Pilar
–, but in practise the
María
is commonly
dropped, and
Dolores, Rosario
or
Pilar
is used alone.
1
The Portuguese in Massachusetts and Hawaii have a few given-names for boys that are very hard worked,
e.g., José, Joāo, Manoel, António
and
Francisco
, usually Americanized to
Joseph, John, Manuel, Antone
(or
Tony
) and
Frank
,
2
but in recent years they have begun to bestow purely British names upon both boys and girls, and in a little while, no doubt, there will be Portuguese
Elmers
and
Douglases, Doryses
and
LaVaughns
.
3
The Slavs and Greeks in America find it difficult to retain their native given-names and large numbers of them seem to have abandoned the effort. An account of the situation among the Czechs, based upon the researches of Monsignor J. B. Dudek, is given in AL4
4
. The Slavic
Jan
, like the Scandinavian
Karen
, has gained some popularity among Americans, male and female, in the Fancy Names Belt,
5
but the Slavs themselves show a strong tendency to adopt American names. Ivan J. Kramoris
6
says that the Slovak
Jaroslav
is frequently changed to
Jerry
and
Miloslav
to
Milo
, and that
Kenneth, Lee, Wayne, Deane, Anita
and
Gail
are growing in popularity. Some of the Slovak girls have even adopted
Karen
. Once I received a letter from a Pole in Detroit who asked me to devise a plausible American substitute for his given name of
Zdzislaw
, which had been reduced to the unlovely
Zelo
in school. Unhappily, the best I could think of was
Elmer
. In 1940 another Detroit Pole, this time bearing the quite easy given-name of
Antoni
, applied to the local probate judge for permission to change it to
Clinton
. The reason he gave was that some of his American friends called him
Tony
, some
Anton
and some
Anthony
, to his confusion and embarrassment. But he did not propose to change his surname, so
Antoni Przybysz
became
Clinton Przybysz!
7
Greek given-names
are so often changed in America that in 1943 the Greek War Relief Association found it necessary to issue a list of twenty-six of the more frequent ones, showing their original forms, the usual American equivalents, and the true English translations or transliterations.
1
Konstantinos
, it revealed, is commonly turned into
Gus
or
Frank, Vasilos
into
William
or
Bill, Athanasios
into
Thomas
or
Tom, Panayiotis
into
Peter
or
Pete, Stavros
into
Steve
or
Sam, Dimitrios
into
James
or
Jim, Harilaos
into
Charlie, Ilias
into
Louie
, and
Anestis
into
Ernest
. Among the Greek waiters in New York, according to the
New Yorker
,
2
“
Demosthenes
becomes
Dick, Francopolous
turns out to be
Frank
or
Franklin
, and there was a Greek named
Demetrios Garfakis
who, on going to work in a hotel, became, not without stateliness,
James Garfield
.”
Among the Armenians there has been a wholesale change of native given-names into more or less equivalent American forms,
e.g., Hovsep
into
Joseph, Garabed
into
Charles, Levon
into
Leon, Dikran
into
Dick
or
Richard, Misak
into
Mike, Mehron
into
Henry, Manoog
into
Mano, Sumpad
into
Sam, Davite
into
David, Vart
into
Rose, Aghavni
into
Dove
or
Dovey, Asthike
into
Stella, Nishan
into
James, Kevrok
into
George
, and
Hrant, Harutyoun
and
Hriar
into
Harry
.
3
In a directory of the State College at Fresno, Calif., I find girls with Armenian surnames named
Bernice, Isabel, Margaret, Betty, Dorothe, Dorthea, Roxie, Grace, Blanche, Doris, Aurora
and
Mary Jane
, and boys named
Milton, Luther, Karl, Martin, Jacques, Harold, Albert, Ralph, Ray
and
Vaughn
. The Arabic-speaking immigrants, mainly Syrians, frequently change the spelling of their names to make them less difficult to Americans, and sometimes drop them altogether.
Mahmūd
is changed to
Mike, Dāwūd
to
David, Najib
to
Jimmie, Monsūr
to
Monte, Wādi
’ to
Wade
, and
Abu
to
George
. A painter of Lebanese descent, originally
Fu’ād Sāba
, is now
Clifford Saber
, and various Arabic artistes have the names of
Julia, Selma, Elvira
and
Lucile
. But there are plenty of Arabic names that fit into English speechways without serious change, and these tend to be preserved,
e.g., Aziz, Habib, Salim, Gibran, Salom, Fadwa, Khalil
and
Farhat
.
4
The Finns and Hungarians, who bridge
the gap, philologically speaking, between Europe and Asia, make many changes in their given-names,
e.g., Jussi
and
Juhana
to
John, Taavetti
to
David
and
Imari
to
Elmer
among the Finns.
1
The Hungarians change
Ferenz
to
Frank
or
Frederick, Istvan
to
Stephen, Mihály
to
Michael, Jénos
to
John, Mór
to
Maurus
or
Maurice, József
to
Joseph, Géza
to
George
and
Elémer
to
Elmer
, but some of their other names,
e.g., Arpád, Béla, Lajos
and
Imre
, seem to be surviving.
The Chinese in America commonly keep their surnames but abandon their clan and given-names for American given-names, and at the same time shift their surnames from first position to last, so that
Lu Chi-hsin
, for example, becomes
David Lu
.
2
Some of the names adopted have a curious smack. Among the Chinese laundrymen of Baltimore
Tom, Bennie, Harry, Willie
and
Charlie
are common, and there is at least one
Wesley
and one
Lear
.
6
And in lists of Chinese intellectuals I have encountered
Daniel, Pearl, Jane, Rose, Jimmy, Eric
and
William
.
4
The Japanese in this country, like the Chinese, seldom change their surnames, and until the rise of the first American-born generation were similarly tenacious of their given-names, but of late many of them have begun to adopt American given-names. In the same Fresno State College Directory already quoted for Armenian names I find boys with Japanese surnames named
George, James, Hugh, Ben
and
Don
and girls named
Ruth, Olive, Ethel
and
Enid
. Peinecke, before cited, says that of 400
Matsus
listed in the Hawaii Directory for 1934–35 only 1.2% had American given-names alone, and only 12.2% American names plus the initials that almost always stand for Japanese names, but these percentages have probably been increased since Pearl Harbor.
Even in 1934–35 the Japanese teachers in the public-schools, a highly Americanized class, showed 56% of American given-names. The Japanese do not run to nicknames and are chary of using given-names save in the family. Said a Japanese Rotarian in 1937:
We Rotarians of Japan are told that calling a man by his first name or a nickname is a Western custom based upon a desire to be friendly, yet it does seem a bit extraordinary to us. We lay great stress on courtesy and ceremony. Most Japanese would consider addressing a man by his nickname as somewhat coarse and of questionable taste.
1
Reinecke reports that many native Hawaiian given-names,
e.g., Leilani, Iwalani, Maunaloa
and
Leimoni
, continue to flourish in the islands, and even carry a certain prestige, especially among mixed bloods. A child of such mixed bloods, even if it bears an American first-name, is usually also outfitted with an Hawaiian middle-name, and such middle-names are sometimes of formidable length,
e.g., Kekoalauliionapalihauliuliokekoolau
, meaning “the fine leaved kaotree on the beautiful green ridges of the Koolau mountains.” So long a name, of course, has to be abbreviated for everyday use. Some of the mixed bloods show strange and wonderful combinations of genes, ranging from Hawaiian to German, and from Japanese to French, Italian and Portuguese. These mongrels, especially those having Filipino blood, which is itself badly mixed, have a liking for curious double names,
e.g., Dorothy Dot
and
Moses Moke
.
2
Others, says Reinecke, have “tasteless names reminiscent of those found in Southern directories,”
e.g., Luckie, Buddy, Sonny, Sweetheart
and
Loving
.
1
In this section a few passages are lifted from Notes on American Given-Names, a paper I contributed to Bookman’s Holiday, a
Festschrift
in honor of Harry Miller Lydenberg; New York, 1943. I am indebted for permission to use them to Mr. Deoch Fulton, head of the New York Public Library Press.
2
World
Almanac, 1921, p. 150. His studies were based upon “100,000 names in biographical dictionaries, Army and Navy registers, Masonic rosters, etc., and the Detroit City Directory.”
3
More
Williams
Than
Johns
, Chicago
Tribune
, March 9, 1938.
1
Frank J. Fay, register of births, deaths and marriages in Boston, reported in 1942 that
John
led among the male children whose births were reported in the city during the first six months of the year.
Mary
and
John
, Boston
Herald
(editorial), July 14, 1942.
2
N
or
M
, London
Times Literary Supplement
, March 30, 1946, p. 151. But in the Domesday Book of
c
. 1086 there had been 68
Williams
, 48
Roberts
and 28
Walters
to but 10
Johns
, and at the end of the Twelfth Century, according to E. G. Withycombe in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names; New York, 1947, p. xxiii,
William
accounted for 15% of the recorded given-names, with
John
accounting for but 2%. A century later, however,
John
had jumped to first place with 25%, followed by
William
with 15%,
Robert
with 11%,
Ralph
with 10% and
Richard
with 8%.
3
An example is
Michael
, which arose to popularity among the English upper classes
c
. 1900 and was imitated by American Anglophiles.
Peter
had a similar vogue a bit later – launched, according to Eric Partridge in Name This Child; London, 1936, by the popularity of J. M. Barrie’s
Peter
Pan, 1904. The curious spread of
Carl
in the United States is noted in AL4, p. 506, n. 1. In the House of Representatives of the Eightieth Congress no less than seven out of the 435 members bore it. It stands in forty-second place in the Newton list of 1920. The rise and fall of various women’s names has been frequently noted. The cases of
Barbara, Ella, Emma, Joan, Muriel, Phyllis
and many others are discussed by Miss Withycombe in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, just cited. For
Joan
see also
Joan
, by B. H. P. Fisher, London
Times Literary Supplement
, Feb. 16, 1946, p. 79, and the
William Feather Magazine
, Nov., 1944, p. 24. For
Maud
see Life With Salt on the Side, by E. V. Durling, New York
Journal-American
, June 5, 1946.
4
It seems to be resented by some of its bearers on the ground that it is too common. “If you should have a boy,” wrote John Keats to G. A. Keats, Jan. 13, 1820, “do not christen him
John;
’tis a bad name and goes against a man.” Perhaps he was envious of the mellifluous name of his rival,
Percy Bysshe
Shelley.
1
Codex Iuris Canonici; Rome, 1917. The commission which edited the code was appointed by Pope Pius X on March 19, 1904. It consisted of cardinals only, with the Pope himself as president, but it took the advice of many consultors, some of them resident in Rome and some not. The code was made binding upon all “patriarchs, primates, archbishops, bishops and other ordinaries and … the professors and students of Catholic universities and seminaries,” and hence upon all lay Catholics. It was promulgated by the bull
Providentissima Mater Ecclesia
. On Sept. 15, 1917 Pope Benedict XV set up a commission of cardinals to interpret it, and that commission has since handed down many decisions. On Dec. 19, 1917 it decided that all
dubia
(questions) must be submitted by or through bishops or the “major superiors of orders and religious congregations.”
2
In France, during the Revolution, an effort was made to abolish, or, at all events, to limit the use of saints’ names, but it came to nothing, and nearly all Frenchmen of today bear them. See Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, edited by James Hastings; New York, 1928, Vol. IX, p. 150. In England a constitution of John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1292) still seems to have some force. It provides that “ministers shall take care not to permit wanton names, which, being pronounced, do sound to lasciviousness, to be given to children baptized, especially of the female sex; and if otherwise it be done, the name shall be changed by the bishop at confirmation.” Ernest Weekley says in Jack and Jill; London. 1939, p. 2, that “this change has often been effected.” He also says that candidates for holy orders sometimes change their given-names at ordination.
3
This is done also, of course, in the case of adult converts, who may bear such abhorrent given-names as
Darwin, Wesley
or
Luther
, and desire to keep them. In 1942 a young priest named
Ellsworth
S. Fortman celebrated his first mass at Holy Cross Church, Baltimore. In the account of the event in the Baltimore
Catholic Review
there was no hint as to what the
S
. stood for, but no doubt it was a saint’s name. The case of Bishop
Duane
G. Hunt, of the Salt Lake City diocese, is not so easily accounted for, for his middle name is
Garrison
.
1
Moral Theology: A Complete Course, by John A. McHugh and Charles J. Callan; New York, 1930, Vol. II, p. 650.
2
Baptismal and Confirmation Names, by Edward F. Smith; New York 1935.
1
Canon Law, tr. by Joseph M. O’Hara and Francis Brennan; Philadelphia, 1934.
2
There are two
Amleth
sagas in Icelandic, in which he appears as
Ambales
. His story was first told by the Dane, Saxo Grammaticus,
c
. 1200.
3
They were encouraged in this attitude by John Knox’s Calvinist Book of Discipline, 1560, their favorite guide to conduct. It said: “Let persuasions be used that such names that do not savor of either paganism or popery be given to children at their baptism, but principally those whereof there are examples in the Scriptures.”
4
The translation they use was the Genevan of 1560 – called the Breeches Bible because of its rendering of Genesis III, 7: “They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves breeches.” It was the first English Bible printed in small format. Charles W. Bardsley says in Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature; London, 1880, p. 38, that it “ran through unnumbered editions, and for sixty years, if not for seventy, was the household Bible” of England. Among the American Puritans it survived even longer. In the favorite American edition a list of approved Biblical given-names was printed in an appendix.
1
The more earnest Puritans unearthed some really formidable specimens,
e.g., Zerubbabel, Zaphenathpaneah
and
Mahershalalhashbaz
. See In the Driftway,
Nation
, Feb. 7, 1923, p. 150.
2
In Puritan Christian Names, London
Times Literary Supplement
, July 25, 1935, W. Fraser Mitchell suggested that their popularity was often “a sign of education rather than of piety.” He cited the fact that Foston Watson, in The English Grammar School to 1660, offered evidence “of the teaching of Hebrew in leading grammar schools” in the Puritan period, and went on: “A parent familiar with the meaning of a Hebrew name was as likely to bestow it on his son as parents familiar with classical names were to draw upon these – a practise very prevalent in the same period and for a century longer.
3
Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature, just cited, p. 118.
4
Mr. James Whittaker tells me (1944) that such names are still common in the North of England – the present Bible Belt of the country.
5
Such names, of course, were opposed by the orthodox clergy of the Church of England. In A Priest to the Temple, 1632, George Herbert thus described the duty of a parson baptizing children: “He admits no vain or idle names, but such as are usual and accustomed.”
6
Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, by Jeremy Collier; London, 1708–14.
7
The Editor’s Drawer,
Harper’s Magazine
, April, 1855, p. 709: “A good old lady died, within our circle, not many years ago who was familiarly known as
Aunt Tribby
, but who was baptized with the more extended title of
Through-Much-Tribulation-We-Enter-Into-the-Kingdom-of-Heaven
Crabb.” See also The Historical Aspect of the American Churches,
Eclectic Magazine
, Aug., 1879, p. 201.
1
Warfel, p. 329.
2
My quotations are from the reprint of the seventh edition of 1674, in the Library of Old Authors; London, 1870, pp. 56–57.
3
Not to be confused with
Wharton
. Bardsley, in his Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames; London, 1901 says that
Worton
comes from the name of “several villages so called in County Oxford” and traces it to 1273.
4
A Norman name. The usual modern spelling is
Greville
.
5
A variant of
Verney – cf. clerk-clark
—, traced by Bardsley to 1273.
6
Possibly a variant of
Pechel
, a name of French origin.
7
A name of French origin, traced by Bardsley to 1315. It is nearly extinct in England.
8
Patriotism Names the Baby,
New England Quarterly
, Dec., 1941, pp. 611–18.
1
Dr. Schlesinger notes that certain Loyalist families retorted by naming their sons after English governors and generals. In March, 1776, a Stanford, Conn., couple named Edwards thus had a boy baby christened
Thomas Gage
, then still Governor of Massachusetts. Three days after the christening an army of 170 neighboring women marched on the Edwards house and undertook to tar and feather the mother. She was saved only by the valor and military skill of her husband.
2
For the permutations of
Lafayette
see
American Speech
, Dec., 1941, p. 312; Dec., 1942, p. 225, and April, 1946, p. 155. Says Mr. Edgar W. Smith of Maplewood, N. Y. (private communication, July 27, 1936): “It is quite natural that the flat
a
should have got into
Lafayette
, for it is in strict correspondence with Parisian usage —at least as the
a
in
la
is pronounced there today. I know some over-precise Americans who call the
LaSalle
automobile the
Lah Sahl
under the impression that they are using the correct French pronunciation. But the Parisian French, and practically all other Frenchmen save those from the deepest Midi, call it a
LaSalle
with both
a
’s short, the closest American sound being the
a
in
ant
.”
3
See What’s In a Name?, by Joyce G. Agnew, New York
Times Magazine
, Nov. 5, 1944, p. 38. After the Civil War many admirers of
Stonewall Jackson
named their sons, not
Jackson
, but
Stonewall
. Such names usually date their bearers. The distinguished Southern editor,
Grover Cleveland
Hall, was born in 1888. On March 15, 1941 the Oklahoma City papers reported the inducting of twins named
Woodrow
and
Wilson
Calloway, born in 1918. On Oct. 31, 1944 the Associated Press reported the death of a Seattle pioneer whose given-names were the surnames of seventeen officers of his father’s Civil War regiment. But for everyday purposes he passed as
William Cary
.
1
In Defense of
Elmer
(editorial), Jan. 18, 1935. If
Elmer
was actually derived from the surname of these brothers it was probably made popular by the fact that it was borne by Col. Ephraim
Elmer
Ellsworth, the first hero of the Civil War, killed at Alexandria, Va., May 24, 1861. As a contraction of the Saxon
Ethelmer
, meaning noble and renowned, it was listed by Camden in 1674. Weekley, in Jack and Jill; London, 1939, p. 34, relates it to
Aylmer
, a not uncommon German given-name, though not a saint’s name. Both
Aylmer
and
Elmer
are extremely rare in England, but the latter is in sixty-first place on the Newton frequency list of American given-names, and thus stands above
Franklin, Chester, Harvey
and
Lloyd
. Some day there may be an American saint named
Elmer
.
2
In the early editions of his American Spelling-Book Noah Webster listed “the most usual names of men.” His list did not include
Elmer
nor was there any mention of
Washington, Jefferson
or
Franklin
, but
Bennet, Bradford, Clark
and
Luther
were included.
3
It is of German origin, and Reclams Namenbuch; Leipzig, 1938, says that it is a shortened form of
Walderich
, the root of which is
walten
, meaning sway or rule. See also Jack and Jill, by Ernest Weekley; London, 1939, p. 45.
1
Iowa Personal Names, by Jerome C. Hixson,
Words
, Jan., 1937, p. 22. James
Harlan
(1820–99) was an Iowan who became Secretary of the Interior in Lincoln’s Cabinet. His daughter married Lincoln’s son Robert. There is an account of him in my Prejudices: First Series; New York, 1919, pp. 249–50.
2
Dr. Raven I. McDavid, Jr., tells me that
Pinckney
is oftenest encountered in the Charleston area, along with
Heyward, Rutledge, Ashmead, Huger
and
Pringle. Hampton
and
Moultrie
are common throughout the State. The Carolina Baptists commemorate two of their heroes in
Broadus
and
Boyce
. The Irish, in the South as elsewhere, often use
Emmet
in honor of the patriot, Robert
Emmet
, hanged Sept. 20, 1803.
Emmet
is not a saint’s name, but the Catholic priests apparently pass it as a variant of
Emeric
, which is.