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>not even remotely true My wife’s immigrant great grandfather felt compelled to change his last name to avoid prejudice against the Irish within the same time
by kcplate 4y ago
>not even remotely true
My wife’s immigrant great grandfather felt compelled to change his last name to avoid prejudice against the Irish within the same time period, so I’d say it’s completely likely. Her great grandfather could blend in simply by changing his name and affecting a less brogue accent. Other immigrants could not hide their backgrounds so easily.
- erie 4y agoLebanese immigrants were given Anglo names while they were boarding in the Titanic. ' The “International Lebanese Titanic Committee” was founded with the following objectives: – Collect as much information as possible on them and their descendants; – Collect as much – Correct their names without the Anglicization or phonetic approximation that shrouded their true identity for a century; Ascertain their Lebanese-ness https://www.lebanesechamber.ca/recognizing-lebanese-aboard-titanic/ https://www.lebanesechamber.ca/recognizing-lebanese-aboard-t... and https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/a-familiar-shout-in-titanic-film-spurs-search-for-arab-passengers-1.572241 https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/a-familiar-shout-i... All my Arab friends had to change their names to be able to work in silicone valley companies, such as Microsoft et al. That was back in the 90s.
- WalterBright 4y agoGerman-Americans routinely americanized their names in WW1 because of a lot of anti-German sentiment.
- MichaelCollins 4y agoThe British royal family did this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Windsor#Background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Windsor#Background
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoEmpire biscuits were the original Freedom Fries: > Empire biscuit was originally known as the "Linzer biscuit", and later as the "Deutsch biscuit". With the outbreak of the First World War it was renamed in England to Empire biscuit and in Scotland to Belgian biscuit because Belgium had just been invaded, but in Northern Ireland it remains known as the German biscuit or biscuit bun.
- mhh__ 4y agoMy surname comes from picking the closest/nicest surname in Manchester to replace the original German one, IIRC
- sorokod 4y agoSo he pulled a Trump?
- edmundsauto 4y agoLet’s not demean peoples ancestors with such a comparison.
- kcplate 4y agoYes, I suppose the wife’s great grandfather probably should have had the forethought to look a hundred years into the future and realize that there would be someone who was disliked that also had an ancestor that Americanized their name around that time knowing that this would cause random people on the internet to pass judgement on the decision as a form of guilt by association.
- sorokod 4y agoPeople in my family changed names as they moved to a new country in this generation, I wasn't suggesting any association or guilt - just an amusing label (apparently not that amusing).
- derbOac 4y agoYes it's hard to imagine today, but Italian immigrants in America dealt with a lot of prejudice. Columbus Day, for example, exists largely because it functioned as a reaction to anti-Italian-immigrant sentiment: https://www.npr.org/2019/10/12/769688161/columbus-days-meaning-for-italian-americans https://www.npr.org/2019/10/12/769688161/columbus-days-meani...