Contents
-SUBJECT INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
H.L. Mencken (1880–1956). The American Language. 1921.
Page 335
making it unnecessarily noticeable.
29 To this end they modify the spelling of the more familiar Jewish surnames, turning
Levy into
Lewy, Lewyt, Levitt, Levin, Levine, Levey, Levie 30 and even
Lever; Cohen into
Cohn, Cahn, Kahn, Kann, Coyne and
Conn; Aarons into
Arens and
Ahrens, and
Solomon into
Salmon, Salomon and
Solmson. 31 In the same way they shorten their long names, changing
Wolfsheimer to
Wolf, Goldschmidt to
Gold, and
Rosenblatt, Rosenthal, Rosenbaum, Rosenau, Rosenberg, Rosenbusch, Rosenblum, Rosenstein, Rosengarten, Rosenheim and
Rosenfeldt to
Rose or
Ross. 32 Like the Germans, they also seek refuge in translations more or less literal. Thus, on the East Side of New York,
Blumenthal is often changed to
Bloomingdale, Schneider to
Taylor, Reichman to
Richman, and
Schlachtfeld to
Warfield. One
Lobenstine (i. e., Lobenstein) had his name changed to
Preston during the war, and announced that this was “the English version” of his patronymic. A
Wolfsohn similarly became a
Wilson, though without attempting any such fantastic philological justification for the change.
33Fiedler, a common Jewish name, often becomes
Harper in New York; so does
Pikler, which is Yiddish for
drummer. Stolar, which is a Yiddish word borrowed from the Russian, signifying
carpenter, is changed to
Carpenter. Lichtman and
Lichtenstein become
Chandler. Meilach, which is Hebrew for
king, becomes
King, and so does
Meilachson. The strong tendency to seek English-sounding equivalents for names of noticeably foreign origin changes
Sher into
Sherman, Michel into