Jack Kevorkian: References & Edit History

• Assisted suicide
• Al Pacino

  / TV and stage work

Kevorkian was known as Jack throughout his professional life. Multiple sources, however, suggest that his name at birth was Jacob. For instance, according to Neal Nicol and Harry Wylie’s Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Assisted Suicide Machine and the Battle to Legalise Euthanasia (2006), Kevorkian’s “given name” was Jacob, but the illegible handwriting on his birth certificate led a teacher to call him Jack, and the name stuck.

The widespread use of the name Jacob Kevorkian in obituaries published upon Kevorkian’s death in 2011 led Britannica’s editors to add it to our article on Kevorkian as his “full” name. In 2015, however, a law firm representing Kevorkian’s estate contacted Britannica about the name. Citing direct communication with Kevorkian’s niece, the firm advised that his “correct and only given name is ‘Jack Kevorkian,’ not Jacob.”

Further research revealed that in 1930, when Kevorkian was two years old, he appeared in U.S. census records under the name Jack—which casts some doubt on Nicol and Wylie’s contention that the name originated from a teacher. As a result, the “full” name Jacob Kevorkian was removed from Britannica’s article.