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Just the word Crawford makes me about nauseated. I wouldn't call Joan sexy either but hey, who knows what those Hollywood nuts were thinking. I do think her real name was much better. I think LeSueur would have been much less of an issue than some might think. While most people in America don't speak French, it isn't exactly unheard of and a lot of places have French names. English also borrows a good many French words. The French have always been considered posh here too. Probably more so in the time of Joan Crawford.

I really don't think LeSueur would be a good surname for an actress even today. One reason Crawford wanted to get rid of it was because most Americans when looking at it would tend to pronounce it as "Le Sewer", which definitely is not a romantic image. :)

Thanks -- it is really a small number of words to discuss the history of a name that's been used for centuries. This particular column is actually a bit longer than normal -- they let me go about 40 words over my limit just so I could include the paragraph about the Hispanic male name Joan. :)