Please note: This is one person's history of the Bloom surname; it doesn't cover the usual etiology. The Bloom family name is an Ellis Island translation. When Great Uncle Hyman came through Ellis Island he was interview by an inspector and a translator. When he was asked his name, he replied Yablanofsky. When the inspector asked the translator what it meant, he replied it was an appleblossom or a bloom. The inspector then told Hyman his name was now Bloom. Uncle Hyman wrote back to Russia that they had changed his name to Bloom. When Samuel [Poppy] came to America and they asked his name, he replied Bloom because he wanted it to be the same as his brother's.