Chai M. Potok; O'Kun

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 7/24/02 1:44:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time, gcohen at UMR.EDU
writes:

> This reminds me. Some years ago a New Yorker named Okun (name derives
>  from Russian, where okun' designates the fish "perch") told me that
>  despite being Jewish, he was contacted as a college freshman by the
>  Catholic student group with an invitation to join. The letter was
>  sent in good faith under the mistaken assumption that his name is
>  Irish; it was addressed to him as O'Kun.

I had a cousin of a cousin who was originally named Kahn.  He became a labor
organizer for, I think,  the CIO in the South and found he wasn't having any
success.  So he changed his name to "Conn" and instantly became much more
successful (or so I heard the story).  Years later, when he was running a
community newspaper, he received a call from someone named Conn asking him to
come to a Conn reunion. "But I'm really a Kahn", my cousin said.  "No
matter," was the reply, "you're a Conn, you're invited."