How Did We Become Strongs?


This blog is for those of us named Strong whose surname would have been Sparaco, but for a name change.  I'll be providing information about the Sparaco clan which came to America from Sicily around 1900 as I learn more.  But first, why is our last name "Strong"?

My father, born Charles Wilhelm Sparaco, changed his name as many European immigrants and their progeny did to become Americanized quickly and perhaps to escape from the prejudice so rampant as the United States, and particularly New York City, became a rapidly changing melting pot.

Charles Wilhelm Sparaco - New York City circa 1919

Charles William Sparaco - Springfield College circa 1940

Lt. Colonel Junior Grade Charles W. Sparaco - US Navy circa 1943

He kept the last name Sparaco through his youth, college, a first marriage to Elizabeth Lennon, and World War II although he went by Charles William instead of Charles Wilhelm at some point.  His father died in 1944 and the marriage ended in divorce on October 2, 1946.  On May 12, 1947 he officially changed his name from Charles William Sparaco to Charles William Strong in Probate Court of Kennebec County, Maine.  Only a daughter from the first marriage, Judyann Eleanor Sparaco, retained the original family name of Sparaco.  The rest of us and our children would become Strongs.

So, why Strong and not something else?

We were told little about this as children and not much more as adults.  I recall Dad telling me that he changed his last name so that we children would escape the prejudice he had to endure.  Another explanation he shared with me was that he wanted to live in Maine where there was little ethnic diversity and thought we would suffer in school and other places with an Italian last name.

Regardless of reasons, he chose the name Strong which he said was a rough translation of his mother's maiden name Wankko.  His mother, whose picture adorned a spot in the living room of our home for 50 years, was named Ingeborg Wankko.  

This photo hung in a frame on the wall of the living room of our home in Jefferson, Maine for nearly 50 years.  Ingeborg Wankko Sparaco - New York City circa 1915

She was from a small town in northern Sweden north of the Arctic Circle called Pajala.  That part of Sweden was just across the border from Finland and Finnish was the common language of the area.  Some versions of the last name from immigration papers spell the last name as Vankko.

It was only recently that I ever bothered to research the claim that Wankko meant "strong" or "strength" or something near that.  Using online translators, I tried several spelling versions of the name including substituting a "V" for the "W" before discovering that "vankka" translates to solid, strong, sturdy, rugged, staunch, steady, stout, stalwart, foursquare, strenuous, and lusty.  At last, that part of the mystery is solved!  As to why the name was changed, we may never know.  The court document did not require a reason and all who might have known like our grandparents, uncles, and aunts are long dead.