CHANGING A NAME

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 October 1929, Page 8

CHANGING A NAME

DIFFICULT FORMALITIES.

An effort was made recently in Britain to substitute the title Office of Military Defence for the present description, War Office. Only last summer the French proposed a similar substitution of what they called the too aggressive term War Office by Army Office. Among places which have found new names in recent times are St. Petersburg, later Petrograd, and now Leningrad; Bulare, now Astrida, a Central African capital; Forfarshire, which assumed its historical name of Angus, and Constantinople, now Mustapha Kemal, in honour of the Turkish President. But sometimes suggested new names are summarily rejected as when Elstree, Hertfordshire, refused to be renamed Hollywood. Incidentally, the changes of British place names are very difficult to make. The county council, parish council, railway company, Postmaster-General, a public meeting of residents, and the Ministry of Health must all agree. Small wonder that Bugsworth, a hamlet in the Peak district which was endeavouring 15 years ago to rename itself Lymedale, gave it up as a bad job.

One can imagine the relief with which two New York brothers called Hell recently obtained permission to change their name to Heill. Yet a Greek, Constable Pappadimitrakapoulos, applying for American citizenship, rejected a suggestion that he should adopt a less unwieldy name. A case of an unpopular name being altered by diplomatic action occurred in Germany last year. The German name Schwiezer, for Swiss, had been constantly used to denote cowherds or farm labourers. This annoyed the Swiss so much that their representative at Berlin intervened and persuaded the authorities to abandon such uncomplimentary use of the name.