Surge in immigrants in Britain Anglicising names: report
Yahoo! News
Sun Jan 20, 4:56 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) – Rising numbers of immigrants in Britain are Anglicising their names or changing them to everyday British ones, The Sunday Times newspaper reported.
Arabic names like Mohammed and Karim are being changed to Michael and Kevin, the weekly broadsheet reported.
Meanwhile Chinese people are adding first name prefixes such as John and Sue to their names.
“We saw a lot of Muslims change their name after the September 11 attacks, but in the past few years it's become much more widespread,” said Mike Barratt, chief executive of the UK Deed Poll Service, which administers name changes.
“Often people are just sick and tired of having their names mispronounced. We're seeing a 20-percent increase, year-on-year.”
This year, about 70,000 people are expected to change their name using either the UK Deed Poll Service or the Name Change Company, two of the most popular services in Britain. In 2001, fewer than 20,000 people did so, The Sunday Times reported.
Rising divorce rates, civil partnership “gay marriages” and second marriages have also contributed to the figure.
One Polish woman with an 18-letter surname changed hers to Hall, the newspaper reported.
