My paternal grandmother's maiden name was Rose Fine. Her family name in the town of Podolya (in Ukraine) was Feinzilber, which means "fine silver". When they came to the US, some family members changed their name to Silver, some to Fein, and some to Fine.

And, in case you all were wondering, her husband's (my grandfather's) name in Kiev was Kolchevni, changed to Cohen when he came to Philadelphia. (Not, as the myth goes, by an Ellis Island official who couldn't spell Kolchevni. He changed it himself, as was the custom among many immigrants, and he picked Cohen because it was a Jewish name that was also acceptably "American".)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.

Aloha,
Mark