"Irishisation" of names to get elected

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2005/1024/2019708744HM1NAME.html

Politics in Chicago is so entertaining.

 

Nothing new. Frank Costello was born Francesco Castiglia. He wasn't the only one to go that route.

 

Faith and begorra! Next ye will be tellin me that Sipowicz is not from the auld sod.....

 

As Charles is undoubtedly aware, the irony here is quite thick. Once upon a time thousands of Irish people anglicized their names in order to gain some small measure of favor with the ruling British. The worm, it seems, has turned.
Jack
(whose last name was once spelled O'Treaghseigh)

 

The last I knew, people can use any name they wish in the US as long as the use is not to defraud. Nom de guerres and nom de plumes are common and require no legal change of name.

 

As far as I can tell, there's nothing in my post that indicates otherwise.
Jack

 

Not everything is argumentative, Jack.

 

My point, exactly.
Jack

 

This was common and deliberate in Israel, too. Labour Party members were encouraged to "Hebrew-ize" their Yiddish surnames.

I don't know...it there really any harm in it?

But then again, look at South America...the President of Mexico is Vicente FOX, about as Spanish a surname as one could wish, right up there with Peru's former leader Alberto Fujimori and the Paraguayian strong man Strasser...

And hey! However much disgust I feel at our own Governor Richardson, his Hispanic credentials are impeccable.

So maybe it is better to stick to your OWN name after all!

 

In the US, many Jews have adopted neutral business or stage names to avoid problems of perception of their kind. A good number of Italians have done the same. I've seen Poles, for business purposes, shorten their names to avoid problems of spelling and pronunciation. Nothing wrong with that, IMO, if the purpose is utilitarian and not to defraud.

 

Most Irish immigrants came to the United States long after the revolution.

When former generations of immigrants anglicized their names, I think that they did so for a variety of reasons.

In some cases, they wanted to make clean breaks with the countries they were leaving, and wanted to assert a new identity in a new nation. They wanted a fresh beginning.

And in other cases they wanted to fit into a population that might not have been thrilled by the huge numbers of new immigrants in its midst. They feared discrimination.

If contemporary political candidates celticize their names, it's unlikely that they are immigrants seeking a new beginning. It's more likely that they are looking for political support from an insular voting bloc that favors its own.

I don't think that ethnic-origin bloc-voting is a good thing at all. Hopefully the country is moving away from it.

 

Not so simple...

Remember, many immigrants came from country's that used a different alphabet. They almost had to Anglicise their names when they entered the country...

 

Re: Not so simple...

True but not true of Germans who anglicised their names. Custer and Pershing, for instance.

 

Some patriotic "name changes" stuck.

I think I recall hearing that "hot dog" replaced frankfurter and "victory cabbage" replaced sauerkraut.

The first survived; the latter (thankfully) expired.

 

Freedom fries!

Of course, everyone just calls them 'fries' anyway.

(The French would probably be happy to get their name off the things.)

 

Re: Not so simple...

Yeah, Cyrillic would be hard. But most languages with different alphabets have established transliteration schemes that generate Latin alphabet equivalents. 'Nagarjuna' looks way different in Devanagari script.

I've noticed that Chinese immigrants often continue using their Chinese surname (in phoneticized Latin form) but adopt an 'American' first name for daily use, whether or not they legally change their name. So Mao Tse-Tung might have become John Mao if he had moved here.

 

Chinese Christians...

I believe it is common for Chinese Cristians to adopt a Christian first name (example, John). This is also common in India...

 

Don Corleaone...

Hey, no less an authority than "The Godfather, Part II" said they changed the names at Ellis Island.....

 

Don't cry for me, Paraguay...in Dreivierteltakt

Stroessner, not Strasser.

The Strasser brothers (Gregor and Otto) were early Nazis who represented--as did Goebbels--the left wing of the NSDAP.

Now, just was Stroessner was we will er leave to the imagination. I don't want to antagonise his ideological bedfellows elsewhere.

 

Re: Re: Not so simple...

Ethnic Chinese who come from Hong Kong (and to a lesser degree Singapore) often have an "English" first name in addition to their full Chinese name. Immigrants from the PRC ("mainland" China for the non-politically correct) frequently adopt an "American" name after their arrival in the U.S. for everyday use when dealing with gweilos. It is my understanding that this name is totally unrelated to any accepted translation of their Chinese name, unlike the practice of other cultures. This use of the "American" name sometimes leads to a legal name change during the naturalization process to become a U.S. citizen.

Perhaps one of our posters from SE Asia can provide additional insight into this practice.