First Name Translator

Because your immigrant ancestors may have altered their name when they emmigrated to America.

While many of the stories regarding the language barriers immigrants faced at Ellis Island are false (there were more than an adequate number of translators there), many immigrants did elect to change their first names when they arrived to become more "American". Although they were proud of their heritage, some immigrants did not want to "stand out" among the crowds because their name was Pasquale instead of Patrick.

Access the First Name Translator

Search through our growing database of hundreds of name associations between different languages, including French, Italian, German, Dutch, Greek and more are being added regularly.

It will take many months before we collect all of the possible name associations. You can help by telling us about any we have missed.

Return to the First Name Basis home page.