>During the 20's, 30's, and 40's a great many 2nd generation Americans changed their names to be more "American." My uncle Itzach became Isaac, another uncle changed his last name from Prussack to Parker.

And in fact, many immigrants gave their children "American" names. What's fascinating is how the societal view of certain names changed because of that. For example, today, we tend to think of Irving as an older Jewish man. But that's only because so many immigrant Jewish families named their sons Irving instead of Isaac or Israel.

Of course, today, the coin has flipped and many of the people I know have given their kids Hebrew names, and a bunch of the traditional names have come back into fashion.

>A number of families changed their name to avoid the rampant anti-semitic and anti-immigrant nature of the times. My ex father-in-law used to play guessing games about what the original name used to be. (Abe Altemonte used to be Avram Hochberg, etc.)

I play the guessing, but sometimes it's the other round. There's a guy on the local NPR station named Shai Ben-Yakov. I suspect he grew at something-or-there Jacobson. <g>

Tamar