Something in a Name

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 25, 18 June 1903, Page 18

Something in a Name

Actors, singers, violinists, even trapezists, circusriders, and variety stage people, know that there is a good deal in a name. It seems, for instance, almost indispensable that singers and violinists should possess an Italian name, pianists a German or Polish name, and so on. Foley, the Irish singer, labelled himself with the name of Foli, which, in his innocence of the language he thought was Italian. A great Australian songbn d knew that she would never soar to fame as Nellie Mitchell. So she called herself Madame Melba— an Italian mispronunciation of Melbourne. Amy Castles will probably lind her singing will never cause a great furore in the big world until she calls herself Amelia de' Castelli Carrodus, the great violinist, ought to have called himself Carrodini— or, better still, Carrettini. 'Ho plays like an angel,' said a lady who heard him in', London ' what a pity he is an Englishman ! ' The cra/e lor change of names seems to have descended upon even the little knot of three Maoris who had &uch diiliculty recently in securing the right to land in Australia 'They were engaged by Mr. Fitzgerald for his big circus, and havo to return to their native land at the close of their

' season.' When the big. handsome fellows stood up before tho Customs' officials, they gave their names as George Isaacs, Thomas Isaacs, and Thomas Watts— all of which, by tho way, are unpronounceable in their mellow native tongue, which has no ' g ' or ' s ' and no double consonant sounds. 'They arc,' &a\s a S\dnev contemporary, ' educated and intelligent,' and they are, moreover, Catholics. We have heard of a negro Daniel O'Connell, and of Kaflir children singing ' We'ie Paddies Evermore.' But those Maoris with Jewish patronymics afford a curious phase in the development of stage names.