In re the Estate of Baffa

Wingate, S.

Words, whether spoken or written, are interesting and important only to the extent that they serve as efficient media for the transference of thoughts or ideas from the consciousness of one individual to that of another. In last analysis, names are merely verbal abbreviations or shortcuts for conveying in a single word a conception which otherwise would require extended explanation.

It is this thought which underlies the statements in Judge Vann’s interesting dissertation on the subject of names in Smith v. United States Casualty Co. (197 N. Y. 420, 428): “ ‘ At common law a man may…