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> my great-grandfather gave up using a patronym to be an American I'd be interested to hear the story there. When it comes to surnames, AFAIK nearly every US s
by kibwen 3y ago
> my great-grandfather gave up using a patronym to be an American
I'd be interested to hear the story there. When it comes to surnames, AFAIK nearly every US state lets you put basically any arbitrary assembly of English characters as the last name for a child, with even fewer restrictions on the last names for adults.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- wrsh07 3y agoAh but at immigration you may have been expected to spell your name and were sort of at the whim of the official (who was helping intake many people) Lots of reasons you might not have your official name written or heard correctly
- ssklash 3y agoI would assume the reason is not a legal one, but a cultural one, i.e. having a very obviously foreign name a few generations ago in the US might make you a target of discrimination. Changing something like "Alexei" to "Alex" would help you stand out less.
- earthboundkid 3y agoMy great grandfather emigrated as a young person and started using his father's patronym as his own last name instead of continuing to use his father's first name as his patronym. He could have kept the patronym tradition alive, but why? He was in America now, and once his kids were born, they mostly spoke English anyway.