What’s In A Name?
The city of Boston was one of the pivotal players in early American history. A popular rhyme declared: “Here’s to the city of Boston, the land of the bean and the cod, where the Lowells speak only with Cabots and the Cabots speak only with God.”
One of Boston’s boasts is Filene’s, a world famous retail outlet.. A number of years ago, the sons of the owner of Filene’s were distinguished scholars with a strong liberal bent. I was then editing the Socialist Call. I made inquiry of friends as to the unusual name of the family. A childhood friend of mine who was in the apparel trades and was doing business with Filene’s informed me that the family name of the store’s owners was Katz.
So just as Samuel Clemens took on the nom de plume of Mark Twain so did the Katz family translate Katz into feline with a twist in the vowels to hide any identification with Katz.
In Boston, there was a Jewish tailor who ran a store to repair men’s clothing. His name was Kabotnick. He applied for a legal change of name to Cabot, The request was granted. A quick wit rewrote the historic lines about Boston. “Here’s to the city of Boston, the land of the bean and the cod, where the Lowells speak only with Cabots and the Cabots speak Yiddish, by God.”
By now I became fascinated with Boston’s heritage and decided to track down the origin of the Cabots. I was well rewarded. The Cabots are descendants of an Italian explorer named Giovanni Caboto.
My name “Gus Tyler” was originally a pen name of Augustus Tilove who fell in love with Wat Tyler, the leader of the English peasant uprising of 1382.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
