Identity
What’s in a name?
There are many different motivations for name changes in stories of self-making. While universally a symbol of reinventing the self, the deeper significance of a name change reflects the circumstances of each individual. Linguistically, names stand in for the objects they reference, and so become inextricably linked to identity. Cultural signifiers within a name can code messages and meaning, allowing us to form preconceived notions about individuals based upon our own stereotypes and associations. One of the most common and familiar motivations behind name changes was an immigrant’s desire to assimilate into the American culture.
Gerber shared in this rite of self-making, when at the age of 18 he changed his name. His name change was neither drastic nor dramatic. He did not seek to erase his heritage in the process of reinventing himself, as Ehrich Weiss did in changing his name to Harry Houdini. Gerber did not seek to obscure his past with a name change, as Helen Jewett did.2 Gerber, in his efforts to establish his identity, appears to have changed his name out of a desire for a greater sense of belonging both within his family as well as the world beyond. He felt that his name was too simple, not important sounding enough. One of his brothers was named Gustave Augustus Gerber, another Joseph Henry Benjamin Hanford Gerber. Perhaps Ludwig Gerber would seem a rather plain name beside those two. Gerber made the change shortly after becoming clerk to Morris Hillquit. Perhaps Gerber felt a need for a more important name as he started out in the world.
I had a conversation with my father shortly thereafter and said, ‘Pop, you have given fine names, middle names to your sons.’ I didn’t quite understand why I was just plain old Ludwig Gerber, that I had no middle name. My father had given his sons grandiloquent names. My oldest brother, for example, Gustave, was named Augustus Gerber. Pop looked at me, thought for a second, and said, ‘What else? Ludwig Hillquit Gerber.’ And so I became Ludwig Hillquit Gerber.3
Gerber revealed two interesting aspects when he related the story of his name change. Unlike most individuals seeking to reinvent themselves, he did not choose his own name. He essentially asked his father for his new name. On the one hand Gerber demonstrated the will and desire to have a new name, but also demonstrated a need for approval from his father.
The second aspect relates to the language that Gerber used to describe his name in contrast with his brother’s name. He used “plain” to refer to his own name, and “grandiloquent” to refer to his brother’s name; these are two of the three Ciceronian terms used to describe rhetoric. As Kenneth Cmiel explained in Democratic Eloquence, the plain style equated generally to the poor, while the grandiloquent style equated to a privileged segment of society. By extension, Gerber seems to be saying his brother was important, or of the ‘ruling’ segment of family society, while Gerber himself was not important, or of the ‘dominated’ segment of family society. Although rhetoric styles were in transition during this time in America, it seems clear that Gerber was following the classic association of the two styles. He seems to have felt that he was less than his brothers in some manner, and the simpler name was a concrete reminder or symbol of that sense of inferiority. Perhaps to underscore the difference between the child and the man, and highlight the change in the way he perceived his position in the family, he summed up the discussion of his name change by saying, “It’s rather an imposing name and I, again, repeat I was proud of it then and am proud of it now.”4 Understanding this family dynamic contributes to our interpretation of his tendency to emphasize the important people he met in his life, and the importance of what he did.
2 For more information on Helen Jewett, see Patricia Cline Cohen, The Murder of Helen Jewett (New York: Vintage Books, 1998).
3 Ludwig Hillquit Gerber, "Happenstance: A Man of the Century Remembers," 27.
4 Ibid., 28.