History Main / NaturalizedName

* In ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'', Sabine's name was originally Xia Bing, but she changed it to a more French sounding name after moving to France.

In the past, when a person moved to another country, it was common for that person to change their name to one that country would find "normal" ([[UsefulNotes/MeltingPot or have it changed for them]]). The reasons for doing this were numerous; they could want to "blend in" better, they may want to avoid discrimination, or they may want to symbolize a complete break from their past (especially if they're on the run for something they did back in the old country). At other times, the name change can be forced on them by an overworked immigration official (although in reality this is something of a DeadUnicornTrope, or at least the immigration officials who did this have been {{Misblamed}}; when this did happen, it was usually the result of officials copying misspelled names from the shipping companies' passenger manifests). While less common today (although on occasion even today someone may change their ''first'' name), this was once very much TruthInTelevision. Still common in fiction that takes place in these time periods.

* In ''Manga/TheDemonGirlNextDoor'', a middle-easterner named Joshua (pronounced "Yoshua") adopts the Japanese name Yoshida as a disguise. [[spoiler:Joshua is the titular "demon girl"'s father, and they are both descendants of Myth/{{Lilith}}.]]

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'', the protagonist was born Haruno Shiobana from a Japanese mother. After she married an Italian man, the latter renamed his step son Giorno Giovanna.

->''Seventy-six Saul Cohns in the country club, seventy-six Saul Cohns playing gin\\

-->-- '''Creator/AllanSherman''', ''Seventy-six Saul Cohns'' (to the tune of ''[[Theatre/TheMusicMan Seventy-six Trombones]]'')

** Creator/IsaacAsimov was born Isaak Yudovich Ozimov. The name change [[SpellMyNameWithAnS didn't help much]].
*** Interestingly, when his books were translated into Russian, his name was transliterated from English instead of using his birth name or translating it into the Russian equivalent.
*** Also an aversion: as he noted in his biography, Isaac's mother chose to keep his birth name rather than changing it to "Irving" as many immigrant parents did to make their children seem less obviously Jewish.

** During ''UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump'''s Presidency, media erroneously reported that his father (and sometimes Donald Trump himself) changed their surname from Drumpf to Trump. In actuality, the name Drumpf was already changed to 'Trumpf' several centuries prior. When Frederick Trumpf, Donald's ancestor, migrated from Germany to the United States in the early 1900s, he started writing his name down as Trump.

* Referenced in the song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swQNNjXztsI Thousands are Sailing]]" by Music/ThePogues. The song is all about emigration from Ireland to the United States in different eras. In the first stanza the song's speaker visits Ellis Island, the now closed immigration center that famously processed millions of European immigrants moving to New York City. (And where many of those immigrants might either have their names butchered on the paperwork or deliberately changed to similar, more American names). While there, he spots the ghost of an Irish immigrant from a previous era and tries to ask the ghost about his experiences moving to the States, but the ghost sadly tells him that he made the journey on a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffin_ship Coffin ship]], (infamously cheap and inhumane ships ferrying passengers across the Atlantic, where it was estimated that 30% of passengers or more might die during the trip) and was dying by the time he reached Ellis Island, and thus never completed the move or changed his name.

''In a coffin ship I came here''\\

** During ''UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump'''s Presidency, media erroneously reported that his father (and sometimes Donald Trump himself) changed their surname from Drumpf to Trump. In actuality, the name Drumpf was already changed to 'Trumpf' several centuries prior. When Frederick Trump migrated from Germany to the United States in the early 1900s, he started writing his name down as Trump.

* ‘’Literature/RadioSilence'': Daniel’s real name is Dae-sung. He changed it after being made fun of for it.

** The [[Usefulnotes/DonaldTrump Trump]] family is of German origin and was originally spelled Drumpf.

* ''Literature/EndersGame'': Ender's own father is a first-generation Polish immigrant to America. Their family name "Wiggin" is a naturalized form of "Wieczorek", a common Polish surname, although most Polish immigrants turn it into "Wiggins" instead.* Another clerical error version shows up in ''Literature/ImperialEarth''; protagonist Duncan Makenzie's surname is the result of a computer error that occurred generations ago when his ancestor Malcolm Mackenzie's name was misspelled as Makenzie; after a five-year struggle to get it corrected, Malcolm gave up and accepted the new spelling.

** In ''Noble House'' American businesswoman K.C. Tcholok mentions that her last name was shortened from "Tcholokian" by her Armenian grandparents.

* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'':
** Karolina's parents are aliens from Majesdane. When they arrived on Earth, they adopted the names Frank and Leslie Dean. It's never been revealed what their real names are.
** There's a longstanding theory among fans that Nico's family used to have a different surname, since "Minoru" is usually a male given name.
** A similar theory holds that Victor Mancha's mother had a much more conventionally Mexican surname, but adopted the last name "Mancha" to conceal her criminal past.
** And yet another theory postulates that Klara Prast's husband had a more conventionally German surname that was Americanized as "Prast".