It's always dangerous to assume that someone is "holding something back," or to speculate on the reasons for it.

I am reminded of my Jewish parents' reaction to hearing the name of Irish composer Sean O Riada: "you know (ha ha), his REAL name must have been John Reid."

I explained that in fact he was Christened John Reidy, but wasn't sure why they found it so funny. Then I realized: In the Jewish community, to change your name is considered a way of HIDING your true name, and thus of hiding your ethnicity. My parents consider it, if not contemptible, at least distasteful and a bit pitiful. In the Irish community in O Riada's era, of course, changing your name was considered a way of RECLAIMING your true name, and thus of reclaiming your ethnicity.

My parents were looking at O Riada's actions with Jewish eyes, assuming that he was "hiding something" about himself, trying to be more trendy or socially acceptable. O Riada saw it as the opposite process, reaffirming something about himself that had previously been hidden, and doing so even though it was not at all de rigeur in the court of Dublin high culture.

So why did Kerry's grandfather change his name? I don't know and neither do you.

Does it reflect at all on Kerry himself? Of course not.