This too is partly Hitler's doing: American Jewish name changing in the wake of the Holocaust, 1939-1957

A large percentage of the name-change petitions during and after the era of the Holocaust were submitted with identifiable Jewish names. Fears of antisemitism, experiences with discrimination and even veiled references to the Holocaust recurred in New Yorkers' name-change petitions in the mid 20th century. Literature after the war explicity portrayed this as an act that revealed some shame over Jewishness. However many may have viewed this as a means of maintaining the well-being of the Jewish people