Jakab Pólya

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-X919-RNL?i=333&cc=...

https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%99%D7%90%D7%A7%D7%90%D7%91_%D7%A4... Wikipedia entry in Hebrew - יאקאב פויה

http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Polya.html

In fact, although Jakab Pólya had the name "Pólya" when his son György (or George as he was later known) was born, he had only called himself Pólya for the five preceding years. Before that his name had been Jakab Pollák but, in order to understand why Jakab Pollák changed his name to Pólya, we need to look at both his career and at a little Hungarian history.

Jakab was trained as a lawyer, ran his own law firm which failed, and then worked for the international insurance company Assicurazioni Generali of Trieste. However what he really wanted was a university post in which he could conduct research into the subjects which really interested him, namely economics and statistics. After 1867 Hungary had gained full internal independence within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the political philosophy of the country was to move towards a Hungarian state that was both Magyar in spirit, and in its institutions. What better way for Jakab Pollák to improve his chances of a university post than to change his name from a Jewish sounding one to one which sounded really Hungarian. He did just that in 1882 and whether it contributed to his success in getting an appointment as a Privatdozent at the University of Budapest, one cannot say but he received such a post shortly before he died in his early fifties when George was ten years old.