Adin
Adin /ˈɑːdɪn/ is an uncommon family name found today in England, the United States (particularly New York City), New Zealand, Sweden, the Basque country, Turkey and Israel. Since the name occurs in the Old Testament, it has been suggested that the name has Jewish origins since it is mentioned in the Bible four times. However, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain have no records of this as a Jewish family name. The Consolidated Jewish Family Name Index of U.S.-based Avotaynu indicates Adin is a Jewish family name that existed in Poland and Belarus. However this may be a phonetic coincidence since a name with so few letters might exist in every culture.
Who's Who in the Old Testament Together with the Apocrytha by Joan Comay states that Adin (Heb. "delicate") 1. date unknown. Ancestor of a family of Judah who returned with Zerubbabel from Exile in Babylon. Ezra 2:15; 8:6; Nehemiah 7:20.
The International Genealogical Index charts migration of the Adin family name throughout England from Great Wigborough, Essex in 1567, to the midlands in the late 17th century, in particular Staffordshire and Derbyshire, followed by migration to Liverpool and Manchester in the 1840s during the Industrial Revolution and onto the United States. Some branches remained in Derbyshire until they emigrated to Foxton, New Zealand in 1863, arriving on a ship called the Helvellyn.
Cultural assimilation
During the 19th and 20th centuries many immigrants poured into the United States from various European countries and the dominant culture found their names to be difficult to pronounce and/or even spell. The Adin family name was chosen by a very small number of Eastern European immigrants during the cultural assimilation to the United States for socio-political reasons and acceptance by the dominant culture. Entire families legally modified their family name from Adinski and Adinus to Adin, some many decades after their arrival in the United States.
Since 1948 many immigrants to Israel have also changed their names back to Hebrew names such as Adin, in order to erase remnants of "galuti" (exiled) life still surviving in family names from other languages.