Renaming Swedish Immigrants to UK

[Janine]

 
My great grandfather Trolle in Sweden had a falling out with his family, sailed the world in a clipper ship, and then lived in London as a Merchant Seaman.  However when he immigrated to England, I have been told a judge in a court gave him a new name REWERS.
Does anyone know anything about this custom?  Law?  It would have been around 1885 to 1890, my grandfather John Victor Rewers was born in London in 1892.

[RootsChat]

Hello Janine,

What an interesting tale  

What name does it give on the birth certificate of John Victor Rewers or the census for 1891  

RootsChat

[JudyLea]

I've recently worked through this on my husband's maternal line -- the Swedes originally used patronymic names such as "Anders' son" for the son of a man whose first name was Anders.  When these young men went into the military (and perhaps into the merchant marine), there was much confusion because of the duplication -- i.e., too many "Anders' sons"!  Many names were changed at that point to reflect their rank, their home place or some geographic feature.  My husband's family, for example, went from Andersson to Bjurstrom to Brustrom -- between the military change and the spelling change when they came to the U.S. in the 1890's, it was a real mining job to get back to the right family!  I don't know anything about laws/customs re changing names when folks went to England, however.

That said, the Swedes have fantastic documentation in their parish records and a number of really good genealogy sites where you can start by searching for the original family name.  You might search for "Swedish naming customs" to get a list of options, for starters.

Good luck!  I hope your treasure hunt will be as fruitful as ours has!

[Janine]

Thank you JudyLea, and to answer Rootschat - he was named John Victor Rewers so my grandfather changed his name prior to marriage to Charlotte Liston.  Charlotte Liston died at aged 41 and Jon Rewers married his sister Clara.  I can find NO records for Clara in London Poplar whatsoever.  Perhaps she also married and was widowed?
I will try to further check into my Swedish roots at some point - my tree seems to be developing far too many branches too rapidly for me to keep up with.