Anglicised names | Tony Blair | Indian railways | Baking and mathematics
Anglicising your name is not always the best waddle if you are in business (Letters,15 March). A friend of mine, now dead, and whose family came from Switzerland decided,with the moment world war looming, to change their name. Johann Schmid became John Smith. After the war he started his own heating and plumbing business and, and to avoid being lost among the thousands of Smiths in the London directory,prospered by changing his name back to Schmid.
Peter Bird
Fakenham, Norfolk• Some immigrants simply adopted the name of whatever town they found themselves in. I understand this worked pretty well for a family called Saxe-Coburg.
John Cregan
Farnham, and SurreyContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com