The Surname "Hitler".

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was on whitepages.com, and out of curiosity, I typed in the surname “Hitler” to see if any came up.

Surprisingly, a little over 30 names appeared, and there were actually 3 Adophs. Is this for real, or are you permitted to put a phony name with your phone number? I find it hard to believe that 3 people in this country had parents who would saddle a child with this name but I suppose it’s possible.

So, does anyone out there know any Hitler’s actually exist, and if so, do you know one of the Adolphs?

2

I have it on marginally good authority that around 20 Hitlers exist, of whom about a third are named Adoph [sic].

3

I knew a kid in high school with the surname. I don’t recall his first name any more, although ir wasn’t Adolph.

–Cliffy

4

Wow. That poor bastard having to get through school being named Hitler. I can only imagine how much fun that wasn’t. I suppose on the flipside it might be the case that other kids were too afraid to screw with him?

5

I don’t know how many actual Hitlers (let alone Adolph Hitlers) there are, but yes, you CAN get a phone under a pseudonym. Two local DJs I know here in Austin have long been “listed” in the white pages under the names of their favorite movie characters.

6

I recall a news story last year, where a couple of white supremacists named their kid Adolf Hitler. They apparently got miffed when Wal-Mart refused to put the kid’s name on a birthday cake.
I’m too lazy to look up the details right now, but does anyone else remember this?

7

Here, joebuck. Followup here.

8

I did remember this. A quick Google turned up that it was actually a ShopRite.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/12/16/2008-12-16_happy_birthday_adolf_hitler_boy_with_naz.html
For the OP, if there’s going to be people like this, I could see someone either officially or unofficially changing their name, or thinking it would be a great joke to have a Hitler listed in the phonebook.

ETA: Argh, beat to the punch.

9

I know a man called Andrew Hitler, he’s about 50 and English. I would have thought that any parents with a new baby born at that time might have put a little more thought into his first name.

Mr Hitler is bad enough. Mr A. Hitler is definitely worse.

10

I read about a German bus driver named Adolph Hittler (two T’s). He was named before the other Adolph became famous. He says he won’t change his name because it would be disrespectful to his parents.

11

Sounds like someone well-suited to a career in management.

12

Believe it. I have actually met a couple who named their child Adolf. Their last name is not anything close to Hitler. Thank God for small mercies.

13

I studied with a guy whose first name was Hitler.

14

Yes.

15

Part of the reason the name is so rare (besides the obvious reason) is that it is itself an alternate spelling. The usual spelling of the name is Heidler, and it’s a fairly common Austrian and Czech surname. There’s a Fox News correspondent named Scott Heidler, an American historian named David Heidler, one of the track and field people on the 2008 German Olympic team was Betty Heidler, and so on.

16

Like I said, I didn’t know him very well, but I didn’t get the impression it was a big deal. It was just a couple syllables, y’know? At least people knew how to spell it.

–Cliffy

17

I knew a guy named Adolf professionally. I don’t know his parents’ heritage, but he was clearly American. It was just the weirdest thing to say, “Hey Adolf!”

The Mac tech that lived near my house was named Osama. Again, it was a little weird answering the phone and saying, “Hey, Osama, how’s it going?”

If I’m not mistaken there are Hitlers related to AH living in the US. For some reason I seem to remember that they lived on Long Island and may have changed their name.

18

Descendants of his half-brother, and yes, they live on Long Island and their father (AH’s nephew) changed his name when he came to the US. He also has another great-nephew named Peter Raubal, who’s a retired engineer in Austria.

19

I wonder how many were born Hitler and how many changed their names to Hitler.

I mean a lot of people will do something like that to hack someone off.

A lot of older people named “Dolph,” are actually Adolph’s and don’t use the full name anymore.

20

Not all that long ago, there was a documentary about Hitler’s relatives (cousins mostly) - I believe most of them now live in the US. They had ALL changed their last names and none of them had anything to do with their infamous relative now, nor did their families back in the day. If I am not mistaken, none of them had children, so when they die, the family name dies with them.

On a related note, one of Osama Bin Laden’s sisters (he has lots of brothers and sisters) lived here in Las Vegas when 9/11 happened and was flown secretly out of the country shortly afterward, for fear of retaliation - though even the US Government said she most certainly had nothing to do with her crazy brother. I have no idea if she has returned, but if she has, my guess she too has changed her name.

I am sure many of us have some crazy nut uncle in the family, but I do feel sorry for those who have really, really crazy, infamous family members who ruin their lives and family names forever.