Change of name - Mary Dec

There has always been a family mystery surrounding my grandfather, surname "Dec"--from Galicia perhaps. I found a Mary Dec petition for naturalization , born in 1899. We are thinking she was an unwed mother and the dates would work. On this petition she asked to have her name changed to "Sister Mary (something)" residing in McKeesport,PA. Anyone have any idea where to go with this? Could she have been pregnant and single, lived with the nuns, etc.??? Or have I been reading too many novels????

Any of these scenarios are possible. If she wanted to change her name to Sister Mary something, then maybe she became a nun. Check with the order of sisters she may have belonged to, as they might still have her on their rolls.

Meanwhile, Dec as a Polish sunrname is short for Dionizy (in English: Dennis).

Hmmm. Never heard of Dionizy. Where did you get that info? Searching "Dec" on a surname name shows it to be a very popular name in the SE of Poland.

That possibility is very likely. When my sis was tracing family roots, she noticed many births several years ago in Poland, were delivered by unwed moms.

The more common hypocoristic form of Dionizy is Dyzio. I believe Dec is an adaptation of the German Dietz which in turn is short for Dietrich.