"Domenico" Americanized as "Thomas"??

[jfalduti]

Hi, I'm not sure if this belongs in this particular forum, or one of the other ones.

I am curious about the Americanization of the name "Domenico", which would correctly be Americanized as Dominick. Has anyone ever encountered it Americanized as "Thomas"?

My GGF's father was named Domenico, and eventually came to the US to live with my GGF. The census from 1930 shows him as Thomas.
It also shows my GGF's first child's name as Thomas on both the 1920 and 1930 census, but on his naturalization petition the first born's name is Domenico (makes sense, named after the paternal GGF).
Then I recently got a copy of my GGM's father's death certificate. It shows HIS father's name as Thomas. However I was recently given a copy of his passport from Italy, where his father's name is clearly Domenico as well!!

Oddly, on the newly released 1940 census, my GGF's father appears as Dominick, and the documents from his death say so as well. So from 1930 and earlier, they Americanized "Domenico" as "Thomas", but by 1940 they were using the correct Americanization. No idea why this happened!

Has anyone else encountered this?

Thanks!!

[JimmyT]

Yes, on the 1940 census. We found that a cousin Domenico living in the same building had listed himself as Thomas. It seems that when trying to americanize their names they didn't always go to the obvious translation. My grandfather was named Vincenzo but used the name James on my father's birth certificate. I asked some of the older relatives and they knew of others doing the same thing, Vincenzo to James. Apparently Domenico to Thomas was common also.

[twon777]

I have some Domenico's in my family tree as well, but none changed to Thomas. My only thought would be Domenico was shortened to "Dom" and census workers thought they said "Tom" and wrote the full name Thomas.