renaming because of illness

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

I've unsuccessfully tried several times to send this reply to the American Name Society (where the initial request was posted by Mr. Fielding; see below), and will now try ads-l.

Gerald Cohen

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Years ago I remember reading a book about Jewish names (I no longer remember the author or title, but with some searching it should be locatable), which told that a Jew who was very ill and in fear of dying might change his name so that when the Angel of Death came looking for him, the Angel would be confused and unable to find him.  A favorite tactic was to change one's name to "Chaim" (life), which would particularly throw the Angel of Death off the right path, since the Angel was looking for someone very sick.

In this regard, I also remember reading that devils too could be outwitted (Devils were believed to be evil, of course, but they were also incredibly stupid. Noise could frighten them off too.)  It seems that the Angel of Death (not a devil but not a favorable being either) fit into the superstitious category of troubling beings who can be outwitted.

The Jewish language discussion group would no doubt be able to provide more information on this.  Also, when Mr. Fielding finishes his study (and no longer needs to keep his information confidential), it would be very good if he could share whatever he feels is appropriate with this ans-l list.

Gerald Cohen

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From: American Name Society on behalf of Russell Fielding
Sent: Sat 7/31/2010 8:42 AM
To: ANS-L at LISTSERV.BINGHAMTON.EDU
Subject: renaming because of illness


Greetings,

I'm a Ph.D. student in cultural geography at LSU working on a project completely unrelated to naming.  However, in my reading I've come across several unrelated cases of people changing their names, or having their names changed, in response to illness.  These are from widely separate geographical regions.  In many cases, the renaming was done on the advice of a spiritual leader, and often on the belief that the renaming would cause some sort of confusion for the 'spirit' or other source of the illness, thus allowing the patient to make a 'fresh start'.

I would like to ask if anyone on this list knows anything about this phenomenon.  I'm interested to learn anything I can about it.  So far, I have found only isolated references to specific renamings, never a compiled overview of the concept.  I am interested to find other case examples and also any theoretical approach or explanation of the concept.  I'm happy to share the few cases I've compiled with anyone who is interested.  Thank you very much for your time and attention.

Sincerely,
Russell Fielding
rfield2 at lsu.edu

--
Russell Fielding
Department of Geography and Anthropology
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

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