Warwick,

I had this story confirmed by Goran Levin, the last Levin to be president of the company. I was told that it was a recomendation from Hershman Music to abandon the Levin name for the reason You mention. This was in the early 50:s and US was a slightly differrent place than today, especially in the central and southern states.

The name Goya was suggested by the father of the Hershman brothers, who had seen a painting of the Spannish painter Goya, who often had guitar players in his paintings. According to Mr. Levin they were told later that "Goy" meant "non-jewish" in jiddish.

I had to Wikipedia the word Gentile and found: Today, the primary meaning of gentile is "non-Jew"...

BTW, The Levin family is not jewish, the founder was born "Herman Carlsson", and took the middle name Levin as middle when finishing his Apprenticeship to become a Carpenter.

/Magnus - Sweden