The thread that holds

I was born Gloria Bernardi, but my father was born Jacob Moses Schwartzman. When he came to America and became an opera singer in the years just before World War I, it was a time of smoldering antisemitism. He decided that the name Giacomo Bernardi would look better on theatre marquees than Jacob Moses Schwartzman. Bernardi became a name that opened doors, soothed suspicion, and allowed him to move between two worlds.

And that’s what names often do — change to fit the times. They can protect, disguise, or celebrate who we are — and who we hope to be. In the earliest days, even the greatest fig...