Our wonderful dog, Murray has a last name. It’s Chartock. Dogs should share the last name of their humans, don’t you think? That got me thinking about names in general. This is an uninformed column. I’m pretty sure that there was a time when people’s last names conformed to the kind of work that they did — Smith or Shoemaker or Carpenter. Sometimes these names came from the language that was spoken where the people came from. Sometimes those countries were not to the liking of the American people.
Chartock means “little devil” in Russian. I think that’s appropriate, for both myself and the dog. I learned about that when I went to a party many years ago at my friend Marcia Tamarkin’s house on West End Avenue, near where I grew up. I was with my friend, the late Jon Lipsky, and we both had our instruments with us. I had my five-string long neck banjo and Jon has his guitar.
The first room we passed had two guys sitting on the couch. One was instantly familiar to both of us. He was, to be sure, Theodore Bikel, the actor/folk singer. We were introduced to him and to his cousin, Alex Hassilev, who we were told was just about to launch a new folk group called the Limelighters. They asked if they could use our instruments and they played “When I First Came to This Land.’” We got into a conversation and they asked our names. When I told them that mine was Chartock, Theo Bikel laughed and said, “That means ‘little devil.’” I have apparently told that story too often because too many people have referred to me as “You little devil.”
There are many tales of people who were given names by immigration authorities after they embarked from ships at Ellis Island. Others brought with them the names of their professions or the places from which they came. Many people “Americanized” their names, fearing they might be discriminated against if they kept their foreign-sounding monikers. Among these were many performers who knew their names might cripple their careers. Irving Berlin was once Israel Baline and there were many others.
Naturally, some first names were eventually retired. How many baby Gertrudes or Berthas do you see? Exactly.
There also were stolen names. People may have called themselves “Rockefeller” in order to be given deference and some of these people turned out to be crooks. Then there are biblical first names. You really can’t go wrong with John or Judith or Simon (one of my favorites.) While some names come and go, the biblical ones seem to stay.
When I would visit a new city on my travels, I’d take out the phone book (remember them?) and look up my name. There really weren’t that many other Chartocks, but for some reason there are a lot more these days. My twin brother Lewis and I would quite frequently (humorously) call some of these new names “good” Chartocks and “bad” ones. I’m sure that the “bad” ones think they are the good ones.
Then, too, there were those ever-present aliases. Back in the day when a boy and girl would’ve gone to a motel with sex on their minds, Smith and Jones were all over the registers.
As time has passed, some things have changed. Women often keep their own names when they marry. Ironically, these generally are their fathers’ names. Today, many children get a hyphenated name containing the names of both parents.
Parents of women who get married aren’t always happy that their grandchildren are stuck with names coming from the paternal side. That certainly isn’t how I think. In any case, last names can be very meaningful in our society. You’ll excuse me while I go look up the last name “Putin” in the phone book.
