On 5/4/05 (1:09:59 PM MDT), Christopher Gray ([log in to unmask]) asked,

"When my grandfather came over from Holland - speaking no English - in 1890, 
no immigration official changed his name from Riepma to, say, Roberts.  When 
the architect Gaetan Ajello came over in 1906, no one changed his name to 
Adams. 

What was it about European Jewish immigrants - many of whom did not speak 
Yiddish or Hebrew or use a "different" alphabet - that caused officials to 
change 
their names so frequently?"


One of the reasons is that, under Jewish law, custom and practice, a Jewish 
baby does not receive a name until the 8th day (which for boys is the 
circumcision day), while states, such as New York, required a name within 3 days.  (If 
the baby dies before the 8th day, than, under Jewish law, custom and practice, 
it is buried without a name.)

So, in many cases, either the midwife, doctor or the hospital (depending on 
whether it was home delivery or in a birthing hospital) put a 'temporary' name 
on the birth certificate, that later needed to be changed, or the name placed 
on the birth certificate was a bad English equivalent of the Jewish birth name 
and needed to be changed.


For example, my mother's birth name was Brwyna bas Yuseph and while my 
grandmother wanted the name to be 'Bernice', the doctor put down 'Bertha', but my 
mother later changed this to 'Beatrice'.


I hope this information is useful or, at least, interesting.

Regards,

Walter Greenspan