What’s in a name?

A lot.

That’s because a name connotes an image. For example, if you had to move to New York City, would you rather live in Clinton or Hell’s Kitchen? It doesn’t matter because it’s the same place. And what about people’s names? Consider the following actors’ stage names and their real names:

Karl Malden – Mladen Sekulovich;

Fred Astaire – Frederick Austerlitz;

Cary Grant – Archibald Alexander;

Tony Curtis – Bernard Schwartz;

Danny Thomas – Muzyad Yakhoob; and

John Wayne – Marion Morrison.

A famous actor wrote the following in his autobiography:

“I never forgot my original name: Issur Danielovitch. When my father,Herschel (Harry) Danielovitch, left Russia to come to the small town of Amsterdam, New York, his brother in the United States was going under the name of Demsky. So my father became Harry Demsky, and I became Izzy Demsky. I always hated that name.”

(Scroll to the end of this entry to see the name of the famous actor.)

So if you could change the name of your community, what would you change it to? And what image would that name create?

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actor

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Kirk Douglas. His autobiography is

LET’S FACE IT90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learningby Kirk Douglas (nonfiction)Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ISBN: 9780470084694