Not sure how to proceed, looking for Curator assist ...

A similar question is Hyman (Chaim Leib) Gordis Chaim Leib Gorodeisky changed his name to Hyman Gordis ehen he moved to the U.S. it would be nice to be able to show more clearly in the profile the original name, the year they immigrated and changed names..

Same as above, I'm guessing "Hyman Gordis ne Chaim Leib Gororodelsky", and then explaining in the profile's comments section. But then left with the question of probably not being able to find "Chaim Leib Gororodelsky" is the search box.

Lordy, you're here as much here as I am. Glad I'm not the only one so hooked ...

Yes! :)
Yes, not being able to find already existing profiles leads to dupes being created...

Luckily, there are four different places (at least) in a profile to add names.

If the person didn't come to America, I put their Yiddish / Hebrew name in the given name field, since that's what is found in the documents. I put variants in the Also Known As field. For example, my great grandfather, Gersz Eliasz Frankel. Gersz Eliasz is in the given name field. I may put Hersh in the AKA field. I could even have put Hersh Elijah or Eliyahu in the AKA field.

For him, he used Harry in America so his Display Name is Harry Frankel.

In the Overview I put what I find in the documents that I used.

It's also possible to use the Language view and put the Yiddish / Hebrew name in Yiddish or Hebrew. Or maybe they had a Russian or Lithuania given name too.

The point being, you want them searchable by their various names, so having the names there to bring back the profile from a Search in various forms is useful.

Eastern European Jews, notably men, had two names their secular and their holy name and they were both their given names. Neither was a "middle" name. At some point this changed when people immigrated to English speaking countries and they had an English given name and an English middle name. Unless they lived in the South or were first generation Scots Irish with a double given name :)

As for surnames, which you ask about also: I would put the surname they got at birth in the birth name field and the surname they adopted in America and presumably is on their death certificate in the last name field.

For example my great grandfather's changed the family surname from Switoch to Hyman (his wife's name) a few years after emigrating.

So he's a name change

birth surname: Switoch
Last name: Hyman

Just like a married name for a woman, I use the "last name used" (death record) for the last name field. Obviously his Yiddish names are in the Yiddish language field.

It's a little trickier for first name changes. Display name is good. Another thought is to use " " in the middle name field, like a nickname you really want to show in tree view.

So I could use:
First name: Isaac Solomon
Middle name: "Ike"

I'll try and find a good summary of Geni's search, but i've been assured that if all elements are in the AKA they will be found. Comma separate name phrases that stand together, also put in common spelling variations.

So I would have also in the also known as field

Isaak, Yzak, Switoch, Svitoch, Switach

Another advantage is then you can work out the cleanest tree display instead of a cluttered look.

There is definitely an art to this!

Many, many, thanks to all of you. I've tested some dummy data. First, I gave my own profile an additional aka "Idiot", search box couldn't find it. With my true aka "Stan", search box did find, but I believe only because the first four letters matched those of my full first name "Stanley", this verified by identifying also a different profile "Stanton" also in my tree. Then I changed my proper aka from "Stan" to "Starn", drop down worked for the "Sta", but not when I added the "r", found nothing. So the search box obviously isn't reading the aka field. Then I tried "Stan ne Idiot" for 1st name, search couldn't find Idiot. Then i tried "Stan, Idiot" (comma delineated), again search couldn't find Idiot. So I'm concluding from this that given Ludel (now Morris) Khait (now Rosenthal), the only workable compromise between search and clarity is to enter first name "Morris", middle name "Ludel", last name "Rosenthal", and born-as name "Khait". Same for Ludel's wife Feige Dine (now Faye Diane) Khait (now Rosenthal). the entry being first name "Faye Diane", middle name "Feige Dine", last name "Rosenthal nee Khait", and born-as name either as "Torbe", the aka field indicating any other derivations that would be helpful, with explanation in the discussion section clarifying the whole thing. Search wouldn't be able to find Khait in the "Rosenthal nee Khait", but at least it would show. If all this is too many letters for display in the profile box, I'd remove first the "Dine", then the "Faye", and only as a last resort the "nee Khait". This all make sense? Does anyone see a better way to achieve best possible compromise between search and clarity?

Make sure you give the Geni search servers time to update their databases. :)

I would never do Rosenthal nee Khait as a surname. Nee means “born as” and you covered that in her birth surname field. Mr. Khait changed his surname, she was along for the ride.

The analogy is any woman with multiple last names over time. For me, given field limitations, stick with “born as” and “last name at Death”, you are matching documents that way. All other names used in AKA or multiple languages. So you could solve the Khait problem as the name she used in Europe and enter in that language field.

In my great grandmother who was born Hyman, was known as Switoch in Russia, and died in America as Hyman, I could enter her Switoch name in the German language module (she was from Galicia). I already have it in AKA. But I won’t get record matches unless I have her Hyman name.

You need to try Search again with the DISPLAY NAME, versus the AKA.

Morris Rosenthal Display Name

Name: Ludel
Last Name: Rosenthal
Birth Name: Khait

Since Ludel is not the middle name, I would not put it in the middle name field.

I sometimes enter Ludel "Morris" in the Name field, but many genealogists on Geni don't like that practice.

The point is that somewhere you want to record his birth name Ludel Khait both so it's searchable AND so it's clear that this is what documents from before he immigrated gave as his name.

Ludel could be in the Yiddish language view for example.

Or you could note these facts in the Overview.

It's good to leave a "trail" for yourself and for researchers and interested family who come later as to which name(s) he used when under what circumstances.

Ludel? Did I miss something? Do you mean Judel (diminutive Yiddish nickname for Judah / Yehuda)?

Why do people object to Ludel “Morris”? It’s a “best known as” isn’t it?

I should say again, this is not easy.

Some like to put the multiple last names in the Display name. Frankly I always get confused by those.

Again, many thanks. Getting me to where I want to be. I didn't consider the "display name" field, very good point. Also realize nee isn't particularly exact, threw it in as a workaround, but think you're right, misleading. Also, not acquainted with the "language" field, so good point, presumably that will cover "Khait". I'll experiment with all this, make sure I understand what's surchable, get it right.

Re: Ludel "Morris", wouldn't the latest-know name come first, so Morris "Ludel"? just want to understand the logic.

I think chronologically, left to right. So Ludel (earlier) "Morris" (later). The quotes because it's an acquired name, not a born as name.

But you might be able to solve this best with languages and not have to worry about chronology.

https://www.geni.com/blog/new-on-geni-multilingual-profiles-386125....

Very good, thanks.

My caveat -- One of the options in how you want to see Names is to NOT SHOW Middle Name (except on actual Profile) - so putting "Ike" in the Middle Name field because you want folks to see it may well be counter-productive (to put it mildly) - and majorly annoys many of us who want middle names in the Middle Name field - not junk like that.
If I am reading Hatte correctly, prefer her suggestion of including it in the Given Name field, rather than the Middle Name Field.

Yah, a difference between Jewish names, including name changes, and regular American nicknames.

I was referring to Ludel Khait, Ludel being the given name. That given name doesn't ring a bell with me. I have to look it up, whereas Judel is extremely common.

Khait means "tailor" by the way.

Private User

I put in the given name field both of the double given names from Eastern European Jews (more common with men, but also occurs with women). And when there are THREE given names, I put them all in the given name field.

I also prefer to put the nickname, "Ike" for Isaac, "Polly" for Mary in quotes in the given name field after the legal given name although others object to this. I have used the middle name field for this occasionally I am sure but I prefer to keep the middle name for the actual middle name which is actually a rare, mostly Anglo-American phenomenon.

Ludel does not appear in Beider's Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names in his extensive listing of nicknames.

Ludwig is the nearest I see.

From the Lithuanian database site, we have marriage records showing Ludel marrying Feiga. Also from that site's we have birth records showing Ludel, so pretty confident that name's right. According to same birth records, Ludel's paternal grandfather was Yudel, so there's another one for all to chew on.

Fwiw, I see a few Ludels on Geni: Louis (Ludel) Barnett (I'm guessing he wa born Ludel and changed his name to Lous Barnett ) ; Yudel (Ludel) Pleyn ' and Ludel Sipel

Interesting. Perhaps Ludel is a nickname for Leib. And of course Judah Leib is a common common double name for Ashkenazi men, especially in my family. So maybe Ludel is Leib Yudel?

And searching on given name "Ludel" in JRI-Poland on Jewish Gen, here are the first two hits, looking at the Suwalki Gubernia results. I'm not seeing it in other areas I look at, but I only hit another couple of areas.

Ludel Lejba KRIEGER
Ludel Lejba MINTZ

Of course Judel was spelled Iudel often so is it an error in transcription or a fairly rare nickname for Judah?

Oh and Louis is very often the Anglicization for Leib, which is why I realized that Judah Leib is a possibly source of Ludel.