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This paper explores the experiences of the main character in Michalis Malandrakis' short novel, Patriot (2018). The protagonist, an Albanian migrant in Greece, is compelled to change his name and (re) invent his identity to achieve his goals in the new country. Agim becomes Yiannis (John) and ultimately dies as Yiannis. The novel engages in an open dialogue with theoretical questions about the self and the Other, subjectivity and objectivity, as well as the feeling of "belongingness." This paper addresses several questions: What role does the self-narrator play in constructing an identity? To what extent is the protagonist welcomed into this new world after his name change? What must he sacrifice to become accepted? And to what extent can a person (re)invent their identity? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of lnternational Journal of Geography & Geography Education is the property of Marmara University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although changing, retaining, or reclaiming names can be powerful statements, there is a confounding lack of research concerning naming practices in transnational adoption. Drawing from 40 in-depth interviews with adult Ethiopian-origin adoptees from North America, Europe and Australia, this paper examines how the personal names of transnational adoptees can be used to displace from and alternatively reconnect with home cultures. More specifically, transnational adoptees discuss the loss, retention, and reclamation of original ethnic names through the lens of ethno-racial respect and culture keeping. Moreover, studying Ethiopian adoptees, who typically differ from their adoptive parents in ethnicity, birth nationality and/or racialized identity, will elucidate how an immigrant background and a Black racial identity plays a factor in adoptee naming experiences. Therefore, this paper positions the naming practices of Ethiopian transnational adoptees within the sizable literature on immigrant and African American names. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims at analysing the atttudes and motivations of a group of 100 Lithuanian Poles, mainly from culturally homogeneous Polish families, regarding the evaluation of the spelling and the changes in the spelling of personal names. The quantitative study is based on the analysis of an awareness questionnaire conducted among Lithuanian Poles aged 34-70. This article not only outlines the existing legal framework on this issue, but also explains the dominant atttudes of the Polish minority towards the prospect of transcribing the surnames and first names of Lithuanian national minoriti es according to the original phoneti c sound, albeit without the inclusion of diacritical marks. The analysis of the questionnaires showed that 57% of the respondents expressed their willingness to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the proposed legislative changes, while 25% were against the changes. Among the motivations for change, the desire to preserve and cultivate the Polish language dominated. This article contributes to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of identity change in multicultural societies with respect to atttudes towards language issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Name change can only take place in the Netherlands under strict conditions and according to patronizing regulations. At the moment, an amendment of name law is being drafted that would give descendants of Dutch citizens whose ancestors lived in slavery an exemption. If they have a family name that their ancestors received upon their release, they may change it free of charge. It remains to be seen, however, whether the desire to adopt new names in keeping with a reclaimed African identity can also be granted. After all, that would conflict with the general regulations when creating a new name. The whole issue shows political opportunism. First, it would be useful to get a good picture of name adoption in light of surnaming in general. Is it right to consider the names in question as slave names? Are they really that bad? It is more likely that precisely the exceptional position now obtained leads to undesirable profiling. In fact, the only solution to embarrass no one is a wholesale revision of the name law that does away with outdated 19th century limitations. Why should anyone be unhappy with their name? Why should someone who insists on having a different name be prevented from doing so? This essay examines the announced change in the law against the background of surnaming in general and the acquisition of family names in Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within most western countries, gendered proposal, surname, and wedding traditions remain widely endorsed. A previous study indicated that endorsement of proposal and surname traditions is associated with higher levels of benevolent sexism (BS) in university students in the USA. Three studies (N = 367) extended research to adolescents (dating age) and 30-year-olds (typical first-time marriage age). For the first time, these studies examined gendered wedding traditions (e.g., father walking a bride down the aisle). Different combinations of ambivalent sexism predicted participants' opinions about surname change after marriage and the choice of children's surnames. In younger adolescents (11–18 years; 56 boys, 88 girls, 68.1% White), hostile sexism (HS) predicted endorsement of surname change, whereas benevolent sexism predicted endorsement in 16- to 18-year-olds (58 boys, 84 girls, 76.8% White) and 30-year-olds (37 men, 44 women, 74.1% White). In adolescent samples, both BS and HS predicted endorsement of patronymic traditions for children, whereas only BS did in the adult sample. The findings suggest that different types of sexism predict traditional beliefs in specific age groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A person's name distinguishes them from others and makes them unique. Due to its importance, the principle of the invariance of the name has been accepted as a rule in the Turkish Civil Code No. 4721 (TCC). However, a person can request the change of a name that they do not identify with from the court, only on the basis of valid reasons, pursuant to TCC art. 27. One of these valid reasons, which is frequently encountered in judicial decisions, is that the person is known by another name in their social life. Despite the fact that they are based on such a valid reason, which is generally accepted in the decisions included in this study, some name change requests of transsexuals were rejected by local courts as the issue was associated with gender reassignment, and the applicant then made individual applications to the Constitutional Court. Regarding these applications, the Constitutional Court decided that the right to respect for private life had been violated. The aim of this study is to examine the name change in light of these two recent decisions of the Constitutional Court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present collection of examples contains case studies from library practice that were collected as part of the digital think tank "Critical Library Perspectives". The examples address various topics such as discriminatory categories in basic classification, the establishment of unisex toilets, dealing with colonial-racist literature, name changes in personal name authority data, and the representation of gender and ethnicities in the Integrated Authority File (GND). The case studies in this article address various challenges in librarianship, such as the use of outdated and discriminatory terms in the GND, architectural barriers in libraries, the accessibility of embedded PDFs, and the neglect of alternative publication formats and non-Anglophone literature. It also addresses questions and needs for action related to diversity aspects in libraries, such as dealing with homeless people, gender-differentiated reading promotion, and discrimination-sensitive practices in the fields of art history and cultural studies. [Extracted from the article]

The authors talk about the case for retroactive author name changes. They discuss the importance of retroactive name changes, the importance of maintaining anonymity in the archives for those mentioned in archival documents, and changes in the field of publishing. The implications of the use of an author's name for cataloging and authority control for information science is also noted.

The article discusses the author's family history research regarding the life of his paternal grandfather whose name is listed as Geza Feldman on a 1925 passenger manifest for the ocean liner Andania which sailed from Cherbourg, France to Halifax, Nova Scotia. According to the article, the name of the author's grandfather transformed from Geza Feldman to George Geza Feldman to George Field over the course of several years. Geza Feldman's efforts to discard his Jewish identity is also assessed.

Across all fifty states, a woefully understudied institution of government is responsible for a broad range of administrative, legislative, law enforcement, and judicial functions. That important institution is the state courts. While the literature has examined the federal courts and federal judges from innumerable angles, study of the state courts as institutions of state government--and not merely as sources of doctrine and resolvers of disputes--has languished. This Article remedies that oversight by drawing attention for the first time to the wide array of roles state courts serve, and by evaluating the suitability of both the allocation of these tasks and the various procedures by which they are carried out across the country. In every state, on top of the ordinary adversarial disputeresolution function that we expect judges to serve, it is state court judges who are charged with administrative functions like approving applications to change one's name, to enter the legal profession, or to exercise constitutional rights like accessing abortion care without parental knowledge or consent. And it is often state court judges who are charged with or who have taken on a range of legislative and policymaking functions like redistricting and establishing specialized criminal courts for veterans, persons in need of drug treatment, and others. And in some states, it is state court judges who have the law enforcement power to decide whether a prosecutor's charging choice was a wise exercise of her discretion. These are not mere odds and ends of governing either; weighty interests hang in the balance across the board. In addition to developing this more complete portrait of the state courts--and of important variation in how these roles are structured across the states--this Article examines whether the interests at stake in each context are appropriately served when state court judges handle them. In some arenas, they are, and this Article places these facets of state court practice on firmer theoretical footing. In others, however, there is cause for concern. With respect to these tasks, this Article argues that state court judges need to be better guided by statute and subject to reasongiving and record-developing requirements that would channel their discretion, improve their decisionmaking, and enable more rigorous appellate review. But most important of all, this Article calls for states to make more conscious choices about structuring the roles they assign to state courts, and for scholars to devote more careful attention to these powerful and nuanced institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the challenges facing transgender voters due to the state voter identification (ID) requirements in the U.S. Topics discussed include the lack of voter ID of 260,000 transgender voters reflecting their name or gender, aggravation of the issue by state restrictions on amending name and gender on state-issued identity documents, and ways to reduce or eliminate barriers that disenfranchise transgender votes such as community-based efforts to expand access to affordable ID.

An introduction is presented which discusses article on several topics including the formation of a publication ethics working group by the American Library Association Publications Committee, a name change policy for authors, and progress on a sustainable funding model for open access journals.

The objective of this work is, on one hand, a review of the nomenclature concerning the etymology of the name of Katowice (1598), and on the other, presenting the origin of the secondary name Stalinogród (1953) related to the cult of Stalin. It was decided to present two contradictory "historical events": the natural naming process, showing the authentic fate of the name Katowice and the political top-to-bottom interference that changed the name of the capital of Upper Silesia to Stalinogród, arousing so many negative emotions in Poland. Poles were well aware of the difference between commemorating their own worthy citizens and worshipping a foreign dictator. Every dynamically developing city was responsive to all kinds of ideological changes. The example of Katowice and Stalinogród revealed the most aggressive tendencies of the power of socialist reality and changes in social awareness. There are many disputes around the genesis of the name Katowice, and it is a well-known fact that scientists do not always reach a consensus quickly. There is nothing peculiar or unusual about this, but such a situation has enormous methodological and research consequences. This is shown by the state of research and linguists' discussion about the name Katowice, which ultimately leads to learning the truth about the genesis of the city's name. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In analysing efforts to pass as white, this article examines the ways racialized difference materializes on the bodies construed as "Eastern European". Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among Russian-speaking migrants in Helsinki, it examines their attempts to inhabit whiteness through tactics of passing, such as changing their surnames, working on their accents, and adjusting how they dress. I argue that these efforts to pass as not "Russian" should be understood through the postcolonial formation of Europeanness, with its internal racialized division between (proper) Western Europeanness and (incomplete) Eastern Europeanness. The labour of approximating whiteness through passing draws attention to sites of racialized differentiation such as accent, audibility, language, surnames, and clothing. These efforts of attempting to pass for someone Russian speakers are not recognized as point to the structural racist hierarchies that refuse to attach value to their bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper derives largely from my own experience during two international sojourns as a case study to tease out the salient elements of the dynamic processes involved in the exchange of my Chinese name Xing for an arbitrary English counterpart Helen, and then followed by reverting to Xing again. Contrary to previous studies that construe the issues of international students reconstructing their ethnic names into English ones as an innocuous expression of good will and cultural integration, this study argues that the neglected impact that these transitions of nomenclature have on the patronization of one's ethnic identity should be addressed as a matter of significant importance. The methodological approach taken here will involve adopting a reflective philosophical self-narration of the ramifications on my ethnic identity associated with the name change. This analysis will be extrapolated and further developed within Cross's five-stage model, arguing that the name change process is indicative of a developing awareness of one's ethnic identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leli phepha liphenya ngoshintsho ekwethiweni kwamagama ezingane njengesithombe semfashini esiFundeni saseMkhanyakude ngemuva konyaka wezi-2000. Umcwaningi uhlonza ukuthi amagama emfashini abe nomthelela omkhulu kakhulu oshitshweni olwenzekile ekwethiweni kwamagama. Lapha umcwaningi ufisa ukuveza imibono yabantu abakhuluma ulimi lwesiZulu esiFundeni saseMkhanyakude mayelana nalolu hlobo lwamagama kanye nezinto ezahlukene eziyimbangela yawo. Kunoma imuphi umphakathi emhlabeni wonke jikelele, abantu banikezwa amagama kodwa kuhluka ukuthi lawo magama ethiwa kanjani, izinto nemicimbi yesintu kanye nezincazelo ezinanyathiselwe kulelo gama. Kulolu cwaningo kusetshenziswe izindlela ezimbili ukuqoqa imininingo, okuyindlela yekhwantithethivu kanye nekhwalithethivu. Ulwazi beluqoqwa kusetshenziswa izingxoxo nabantu abangamaZulu, kwaphinde kwabhekwa noma kwacuntshungulwa ama-rejista ezikole ezahlukene. Injulalwazi ye-Dynamic onomastic iyona esentshenzisiwe njengomgogodla walolu cwaningo. This study is an investigation of change in naming practice of Zulu children as a reflection of 'fashion names' in UMkhanyakude District. The researcher hypothesises that 'fashion names' have contributed a lot to change personal naming practices. The article seeks to explore the views and perceptions of the isiZulu speakers in UMkhanyakude District on changes in naming practices and different patterns of naming. Naming is a universal cultural practice. In every society in the world, people are given names, but what varies is how the names are bestowed, the practices and rituals involved and the interpretations attached to the names. This study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. Data collection involved in-depth interviews with the isiZulu-speaking people and the reviewing of school registers for different schools. This study is informed by the dynamic onomastic theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Derecho Privado (00347922) is the property of Editorial Reus and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective: The article examines gendered expectations in marital naming and gender differences in how Finnish couples of the opposite sex engage in agentic work when negotiating names in the transition to marriage. Background: Whereas most literature focuses on women, this study investigates the decision‐making as a process participated in by both partners. Negotiation on names illustrates the process of becoming "us," a new family unit in which the name is an important symbol. In this process, the Nordic ideal of gender equality effectuated by the Finnish Names Act, which treats partners symmetrically, collides with the practice of patrilineal surnaming considered as being the "traditional way." Method: A total of 19 couple interviews were analyzed from the perspective of gender reflexivity and agentic work engaged in by two partners. Results: Qualitative analysis highlighted the following three patterns in couples' reasoning: patrilineal naming as self‐evident, "it's her choice," and equivalence. In most cases, however, the couples resolved the ambivalence between gender equality and patrilineal naming practices by the agentic work of women, whereas men were privileged to withdraw from the negotiations. Conclusion: Gendered dynamics of decision‐making point out the subtle ways in which a patriarchal mind‐set continues to have a hold on family formation at the micro‐level of family relationships despite the widespread acceptance of gender equality in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the socio-political environment of the United States, the identities of religious and racialized Muslims have been scrutinized. Using qualitative semi-structured interviews with religious Muslim American men, I explore discussions that indicate a preference for some strategies for managing stigma over others. I focus specifically on name-changing as a strategy that is polarizing in interview data. Based on my findings I conclude that religious names are a prominent identifier of Muslim identities and may be managed by changing names or choosing nicknames. Furthermore, statements made by Muslim men that center on the management of identities through name-changing come with ingroup value-judgements which appear to reveal a hierarchy in the desirability of certain stigma management strategies over others for these religious Muslim men. This preferential stigma management can be interpreted as boundary work whereby religious Muslims--who regularly attend mosques--construct meaning around unapologetically presenting one's religious identity. This investigation is relevant to discussions that center on the racialization process, boundary work, and the experiences of Muslims in the post-terror United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of name changing choices women have undertaken in English-speaking Western countries such as the USA and in the UK indicate that there are various predictors of whether women change their name at marriage or not, one of which is whether they identify as a feminist. This research examines the views of women and men on the issue of choice in name changing at marriage on a UK-based internet forum, Mumsnet, and in the British newspaper The Guardian online and explores whether identification with feminism has an influence on traditional name changing choices performed by women and men. The paper concludes that societal change is necessary to accommodate genuine free choice in name changing at marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within Western cultures, most women in heterosexual relationships adopt their husbands’ surnames after marriage. In attempting to explain the enduring nature of this practice, researchers have noted that women tend to encounter stereotypes when they break with tradition by retaining their own surnames after marriage. A complementary possibility is that stereotypes are also directed toward men whose wives violate the surname tradition. The current research provides initial insight into this possibility through three studies that were conducted in the United States and United Kingdom with undergraduate and community samples (total N = 355; 254 women and 101 men). Study 1 revealed that participants predominantly referenced expressive traits when describing a man whose wife retained her surname. Study 2 built on these findings with an experimental design. Relative to a man whose wife adhered to the surname tradition, a man whose wife retained her surname was rated as less instrumental, more expressive, and as holding less power in the relationship. In Study 3, participants high in hostile sexism were particularly likely to rate a man as lower in power when his wife retained her surname. Collectively, findings provide insight into attitudes that may help to explain the longevity of the marital surname tradition. Findings also join with prior research in revealing links between commonplace marriage traditions and gendered power dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the effects of legal name change on socioeconomic factors, general and transgender-related health care access and utilization, and transgender-related victimization in a sample of young transgender women (transwomen) of color. A cross-sectional group comparison approach was used to assess the potential effects of legal name change. A convenience sample of young transwomen enrolled in a no-cost legal name change clinic were recruited to complete a 30-min interviewer-guided telephone survey including sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors, health and well-being, health care utilization, transgender transition-related health care, and transgender-related victimization. Sixty-five transgender women of color (37 = pre-name change group, 28 = post-name change group) completed the survey. Results indicated that the transwomen in the post-name change group were significantly older than the pre-name change group. In age-adjusted analyses, the post-name change group was significantly more likely to have a higher monthly income and stable housing than the pre-name change group. No significant differences were observed for general health care utilization; however, a significantly greater percentage of transwomen in the pre-name change group reported postponing medical care due to their gender identity. In addition, a significantly larger proportion of transwomen in the pre-name change group reported using non-prescribed hormones injected by friends and experiencing verbal harassment by family and friends compared to transwomen in the post-name change group. Findings suggest that legal name change may be an important structural intervention for low-income transwomen of color, providing increased socioeconomic stability and improved access to primary and transition-related health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Everybody knows that D'Alembert was a foundling brought up by a wet‐nurse he was much attached to, and that he was very grateful to the director of the boarding school where he spent eight years before going to Mazarin College. However neither the wife of the glazier Rousseau nor the schoolmaster Berée had been correctly identified since D'Alembert's death. The places where they lived had not been precisely located in Paris. Moreover the man who provided D'Alembert with a means of existence all of his life has always been considered without any proof, as more than the guardian he actually was, while the name “Jean Baptiste Louis d'Aremberg” that Jean Le Rond had believed to be his name for eighteen years has never been really questioned. Thanks to quite a number of manuscripts we have been able to find in national and local archives or libraries over several years, the biography of D'Alembert is now more precisely documented, the results of our investigation include a well‐argued hypothesis regarding D'Alembert's biological father. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will look at the social politics of name changing or (re) naming of the folk theatre form of Bihar, India called Naach. It will attempt to analyze how caste-class structures and gender politics have led to the (re) naming of Naach as Launda Naach and as Bidesiya over the years. It shall argue that the (re) naming of Naach as Launda Naach is a strategy employed by the upper castes and classes of Bhojpuri society as a way of belittling a popular folk tradition that belongs to the Other. One of the most prominent characteristics of Naach is female impersonation by male actors. When these male actors are referred to as laundas, it is considered an abuse. The word launda literally means a young boy but in everyday language, it is considered a derogatory term suggesting a man who is effeminate, vulgar, immature and from an inferior class or caste. The word also precariously stands at the edge of moral boundaries prescribed by society and thus the addition of the word launda to naach thus becomes a way of stigmatizing the form. Furthermore, when Naach or Launda Naach is replaced with the term Bidesiya (which literally means 'migrant'), by the urban elite, the exercise flattens out other dominant themes like feminism, caste-struggle, child marriage, dowry that are a prominent part of the performance tradition of Naach. The article will argue that the popularity of the legendary artist Bhikari Thakur lead to the dominant elite to co-opt him by calling his folk tradition Bidesiya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The table features a short review of judicial regulations regarding the change of personal name in several countries around the world. Some states give the individual a fair amount of freedom to choose personal name, while other states impose severe restrictions. In some states, the limitations are content-based (the change is possible only if sound reasons are stated), while in others, formal aspects of the change are brought to the foreground (the change is allowed if a special procedure confirms that all required conditions have been met). Finally, the costs (fees) of such procedures may, also, be considered a limitation. In most countries, the change of personal name requires sound justification: - the content or the meaning of the name (scornful, offensive, shameful, indecent, humiliating, extravagant), - the grammar of the local language (difficult pronunciation and spelling, translation from a foreign language), - indication of belonging to a social group (religion, sex, nationality, citizenship), - pragmatic circumstances (long-term use of the name which is different from the individual's official name), - differentiation between people (homonymy – two people with the same first name and the same surname, frequent occurrence of particular surnames). Some countries also limit the right to the change of the personal name with a time limit, that is, with the specification of the minimum period of time since a previous name change; in some countries, the number of name changes is also limited. The procedure itself is fairly simple in the countries with common law (e.g. England, Wales, Northern Ireland, USA). The most complicated are the procedures in those countries where a formal investigation is required to determine whether or not the individual meets all required criteria (e.g. Belgium, Sweden, Australia). Public notice and possible objections by third parties are also considerable obstacles in acquiring a new personal name. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research on name change, citing the case of Norwegian Fjotolf Hansen and Josef Mayrhoff, the two prisoners who were both sentenced to the highest possible penalty in their respective countries. Topics include the reason for changing their names, some aspects of the vast field of performativity of names, and the importance of proper names in performing arts.

The article presents the transcript of change of name hearing dated December 21, 2007.

In a lecture several years ago, past Europe Regional Director Kate York pointed out the ordeals of migrants from Europe and how they were received in New York at Ellis Island. In 2016, noting the many parallels to be seen as Europe received numerous migrants and refugees—in particular from Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia—members attending the Europe Regional Breakfast at the international convention returned to this theme of immigration. Many European members, both retired and active, have been asked to contribute to support and help the persons coming to their countries to have a humane and dignified reception. To provide focus on this situation and illustrate similarities between prior immigration and that occurring now, three members told the history of three families, illustrating name changes, religious challenges, and language issues that exist for immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from 60,223 clients of MissNowMrs.com were used to identify predictors of women retaining their premarital surname as a middle name when changing their last name to that of their husband after they were married. Among women who changed their last name to that of their husband, 18 % kept their former last name as a middle name. We identify four significant predictors of women keeping their surname as their middle name: education, marital age, race, and region of residence. As their education level increased, women were significantly more likely to keep their surname before marriage as a middle name. Marital age had a curvilinear relationship with this naming choice. African Americans were significantly less likely than whites to use their birth name as a middle name while other women of color were significantly more likely than whites to follow this practice. The birth surname as middle name pattern was most common in the South, suggesting a regional cultural influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mother filed an Application for a Change of Name for her daughter, a minor child. The Guardian Ad Litem appointed for the minor child recommended that it would be in the minor's best interest to have Father's name removed. Mother, who had been granted sole custody of the minor, requested that the minor's surname be changed to her own. The Court concluded that the preponderance of the evidence at the hearing demonstrated that Father had minimal interaction with the minor since her birth, that he had no objection to the removal of his surname from hers, and that the change of name requested would neither harm nor embarrass him, nor would it cause him injury. Therefore, the Court found that the petitioner met her burden by a preponderance of the evidence and that it is in the minor's best interest and welfare that her name be changed as requested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article surveys more than a thousandrelaciones de causa(summaries of cases) from the Toledo tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition to examine the uses of names in early modern Iberia. Three crucial features of early modern names come to the fore: the potential to communicate information about the bearer, contingency upon interpersonal use, and the ease of changing one’s name. The confluence of these factors made names a potent means for creating, maintaining, or altering identities, and thus for negotiating any number of problems or opportunities. This agency of ordinary people over their own social identities demands a democratization of the concept of “Renaissance self-fashioning.” Furthermore, the ubiquity of name-changes in the early modern period highlights the extent to which naming is a continual process, problematizing traditional onomastic sources that privilege birth-names and focus on subjects’ names at a single point in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an interview with Kirsten Fermaglich, an educator, researcher and author, who discusses her book on name changing in New York City, her interest in the boundaries of Jewishness, and how the media dealth with Jewish name changing.

The baptism of the natives in Estonia and Latvia in the thirteenth century did not result in compulsory name change. The native population accepted the “Christian” names by the mid-sixteenth century as a result of general cultural adaption of elements of the “German” culture of socially higher classes, but this process does not directly reflect the process of acceptance of the Christian religion. The few examples of receiving a new name in the crusading period indicate the re-arrangement of political relations, which were related to creating patronage ties and god-parenthood relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]