"Ted Gostin" <tgostin@earthlink.net> wrote in news:NDage.639$OU1.415@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net: > I'm trying to figure out a name change for someone in Sweden who was > known as Johannes ANDERSSON up until the time he left his parish to > emigrate to the U.S. in 1880, but was then known as Johann LEVIN when > he boarded the ship a week later. > > I have traced Johannes ANDERSSON and his family in clerical surveys > for Tissleskogs parish up until April 24, 1880, when the surveys > indicate that he left for the U.S. At that time, he is still listed > as Johannes ANDERSSON in the surveys, as he was in all previous years > and in church records. When he boards the ship a week later on May 1, > 1880, however, he is known as Johann LEVIN, and in the U.S. he and his > family were known by the surname LEVINE. (The family isn't Jewish.) > > I was hoping that the clerical surveys might indicate when and why he > changed his name, but there is no indication of a name change in any > of the Swedish sources I've checked. I did find that a significant > number of Swedes immigrated to the U.S. under the name LEVIN (several > hundred), so I'm assuming that it has some significance in Swedish. > There doesn't seem to be any pattern to where these people came from, > so I can't spot any obvious geographical origin. > > Does anyone have any idea of: > > 1) What significance the LEVIN name has in Swedish, if any? It is a non-patronymic family name which might have been familiar to Swedes at the time. If you did not *have* a family name (you just went by "Anders, son of Carl", which was good enough if you lived in the same parish all your life), and had to pick one because you were moving to a place where people expected you to have a fixed family name, why not pick some name you knew was already in use as a family name ? > 2) Why and how a Swedish farmer would change his name suddenly from > his patronymic name ANDERSSON to the surname LEVIN in the week between > leaving his parish and arriving at the port of emigration? Pure guess - but he was starting a new life in a new country with new customs and a new language. Back then emigration was pretty much a one- way ticket deal. Why not pick a new name, too ? Grin, Stein