Naming a New Self: Identity Elasticity and Self-Definition in Voluntary Name Changes

This article considers how personal name changes are situated within their sociological context in the United States. Reviewing both popular and scholarly texts on names and name changes, I draw on recent work on identity and narrative by Oriana to argue that voluntary personal name changes are made in relation to a sense of narrative elasticity oridentity elasticity, and act symbolically to make a shifting identity or self-narrative manifest in the social context. Drawing out these themes through an exploration of name changes for ethnic self-definition or religious purposes, I conclude with a reflection on the unstable social balance between an individual’s interest in self-expression and society’s priority on the stable identification of persons within a given social sphere

Polizeivizepräsident Bernhard Weiss gegen Gauleiter Joseph Goebbels : Der Kampf um den Namen "Isidor" /

A presentation at an academic conference in Berlin, May 24, 1982, about the president of the Berlin police, Bernhard Weiss and his ongoing conflict with Joseph Goebbels from 1927 to 1932, particularly the significance of Goebbels' insistence on referring to Weiss as "Isidor."Also included is a related letter from Dietz Bering to the Leo Baeck Institute.Bernhard Weiss was born in 1880 in Berlin. He was vice president of the Berlin police during the Weimar Republic. While in office, Weiss - who was Jewish - was the target of a constant campaign of vilification organized by Joseph Goebbels, then a prominent Nazi activist. Goebbels nicknamed Weiss “Isidor.” Weiss sued Goebbels for libel and won his case. Goebbels did not refrain, so Weiss sued Goebbels over 40 times. Weiss fled to England in early 1933. He died in 1951 in London.The original German-language inventory is available in the folderProcessed for digitizationdigitize