Ancestry, What's in a Name?

Unless you come from parents or grandparents who

immigrated to this country from some other, you may

not scrutinize your lineage very thoroughly, especially

if you happen to be a milk-toast white guy such as I.

Being black or brown, featured with high cheek bones

and skin tinted reddish-brown, adorned with almond-

shaped eyes, you likely have a good idea about your

origins.

Surnames such as Polakowski, Flannery, Scaramucci

Garcia or Chen can often be a fair indicator as to the land

from which your forefathers had their origins. But, for

the most part, young folks these days, the Smiths, Jonses,

Williamses, and Clarks of the world, being of the Heinz 57

variety, couldn’t care less about the root origins or ethnicity

of their names.

Oh, in this day of genetic and biological advances, there

are mail-in DNA tests available one can obtain for a price.

For about a hundred bucks, one can get an ancestry pie

chart with a good measure of accuracy which outlines the

heritage of your kinfolk going way back nearly to the Adam

and Eve beginnings of your ancestry.

Take me for instance, my grandfather came to these shores

in the early 1900s from Peloponnese in Greece. When he

was processed by officials at Ellis Island they took a look

at his last name, Hajiannis, and confused by the Greek

alphabet and pronunciation, they assigned him an Ameri-

canized identity. From that time forward he and his progeny

would legally be known as, Hanch, which had no Hellenic

ring to it at all.

In fact, when I was a soldier stationed in Germany, I was

occasionally approached by folks who upon seeing my

name tag asked if I was German? (Hansch with an “sch,”

is a fairly common German name.) I would smile politely

and shake my head, yes, considering my mother’s maiden

name was Deichmann. But that just complicated the whole

matter of surname origins, so I never bothered to explain.

So, here we are, all of us Americans, many of whom have

had their ancestral names mixed, homogenized, misspelled,

mispronounced, supplanted and suffused. At a social gathering

a few years back, my wife was asked by another woman for

her last name. “Hanch,” she offered. And the puzzled woman,

probably unable to identify any particular ethnicity or origin

rudely responded, “That’s not a very pretty name.”

From time to time I have considered changing my last name

back to, Hajiannis, but what the hell, people have a hard

enough time trying to say or spell, Hanch, a not so pretty

name some would say anyway.

Chris Hanch 11-10-18