>A Jewish lady I used to work with told me that U.S. Immigration officials years ago (possibly during/after WWII) had so much difficulty with the Polish, etc., Jewish names, that they began arbitrarily assigning names that were more understandable to them. That's why we have a large number of Goldsteins, Goldblums, Goldbergs, etc.

It actually went quite a bit farther than that. My father went to work in Minneapolis-St. Paul as a cub reporter somewhere around 75 years ago. A naturally curious fellow, as are all reporters, he began to walk around the area (during the spring and summer, of course, NO one walks around there in the winter!) He soon noticed a sign that read "Olaf Olafsen's chinese Laundry." Wondering if there was a story there, the Old Feller went in and asked for Olaf. The ancient Chinese man running the place volunteered that his name was Olaf Olafsen.

"How," asked my father, "did you come up with that name."

"I always wondered," said the Chinese guy. "I got off the boat in Detroit and at the immigration desk there was a huge blond man in front of me. He told the immigration people his name was Olaf Olafsen. The man behind the desk finished with the blond man then asked me what my name was. I told him, 'Sam Ting.'"


TEd