Name-change against your will

My grandfather and grandmother changed their names to something really English when they arrived in the UK during WW2 They wanted to blend in more and there wasn't much sympathy for Jews in London at that time. People were openly hostile some even blaming folks like my grandparents for London getting bombed.

I'm sure that made some of their parents mad, too.

I actually read about this.

Alot of names were Anglicised when people immigrated to the US as well. My mother always thought her family name was as well, but as turns out it is exactly the same in Germany as it is here, probably because it was short.

This has been quite common throughout the ages I guess. I met an older woman (on a train once!) who told me that at school in the outer Hebrides of Scotland she was not allowed to use her real name but was given an Anglicised name. I used to work with a Chinese man who introduced himself with an English name (George), he said the people he worked with before had used it as they found it easier, Strange as his name was not difficult to spell or pronounce. But then I've met a lot of Chinese people who give themselves English names to make life easier and because they like the meaning. Many Americans have simplified versions of names from Ireland, Poland, Italy... Monika Lewinsky, for example, would have been Monika Lewinska if she had still been in Poland (different versions of the name for male and female). And Icelandic surnames actually mean what they say - for example someone with the surname Björnsson is actually the son of someone called Björn, not like here where a name like Williamson is now just a name and doesn't mean that you are a man or that you have a father called William. This system doesn't go down at all well with American immigration.

When both sets of my grandparents came to USA, their Russian last names were changed because they were unpronounceable. Hard to trace back roots due to that.

Yes, I would imagine these name changes could certainly be a problem. In trying to find friends and family too.

That's interesting. Here it seems many immigrants would change their surnames to hide their ethnicity, I suppose a lot of that had to do with the level of prejudices we had here. I've heard that many german immigrants in the 50s changed how they'd spell their names once they became citizens here.

Luckily I never had to change my typical Latvian name Rasma but if there were problems I used my middle name Sandra,

That would be frustrating. I think some of my ancestors shortened their last names when they got here from Eastern Europe.

I have a relative who is big in the my dad's ancestry. From what he gleaned, there are four variations of my last name. One of the most common is removing the i and the other is taking off the x. It makes for an interesting name.

My last name has many spellings and I saw on a message board one time that the different spellings came from gypsies being England and the king made them leave and that's how the many different spelling happened. I don't know if that is true.

I would guess that these name changes were like nicknames, and that the real name would still be on their birth certificates, and official papers. If I had been one of those children, I would simply not have answered to another name, but I guess this would have risked a beating from the nuns in those days, so maybe I might have complied in lip service only.

That must have angered the parents, I wouldn’t like if I would be force to change my name.

I do not know any immigration stories in my family. My dad had a very German last name, but his mom always called them "Black Dutch". Out of not wanting to be known as German, I guess.

Happened to my mother and her sibs... the 'e' in Dubiel was kicked out.

That wasn't right. I would not like it either

In the Australian cricket team, we have Marnus Labuschagne originally from South Africa. It is not easy to pronounce though an easier version has been accepted by the player himself. One of his colleagues calls him "loose change"! "Marnus Labuschagne’s surname is generally pronounced "Lab-u-shane" (rhyming with champagne), which is the accepted, Anglicized pronunciation used in Australian cricket. While of South African (Afrikaans) descent, where it is often pronounced as "Lab-uh-skag-nee" or "Lab-nee," the player himself uses the "Lab-u-shane" version".

Name changes are very annoying for a big section of the society

Yes, that would make genealogy extremely difficult.