My Surname

My whole life has been a process of trying to discover the meaning and history behind my names.

When my great-grandfather's brother immigrated to the United States in 1890 he changed his surname. My great-grandfather followed him eight years later and changed his surname to the one his older brother selected.

While both Asher and a great aunt in Baltimore told me that a non-Jewish customs official at the port of New York changed the family name, I know that the idea of forced name change at Ellis Island is myth.

So why did my family adopt this surname upon immigration? Why did they change their Jewish surname to a more recognizably Jewish surname?

I have always been interested in this question since my middle name is also a surname; the surname our family had in the shtetl. In an attempt to keep the memory of the original surname name alive, my great-grandfather gave this surname to my grandfather as a middle name. My grandfather then gave it to my father, my father gave it to me, and I gave it to my son.

After years of research, I understand the history behind my middle name. The history behind my surname continues to allude me.