Evertjan. wrote:

I have come across a man living in South Wales, known in the Census and other
sources as Harry Goldblatt. He was naturalised as a Britishcsubject in 1920
and the entry in the London Gazette gives his name as 'Chlavney (known as Harry)
Goldblatt'. Could that be a mis-spelling of his forename?

Wild guess:
Czech hlavni, Slovac hlavny "big":<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hlavn%C3%AD>

from Czech& Slovac hlava "head":<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hlava#Czech>

[>from Proto-Slavic *golva]
Perhaps there are other Slavic forms?

Indeed there are. I propose Slavic xvala 'praise', semantically more likely to
appear in names in the Hebrew style. Indeed, a Hebrewist among us might know a
Biblical name of the form "God praises/praise God" etc. While perhaps of Church
Slavic origin, the root occurs in all three Slavic branches--East, West, and South.
Switching chval- to chlav- is an easy linguistic change. PS I would love to
confine the technical discussion to private exchange, if Evertjan would be kind
enough to send me an email address that doesn't require rewriting.
Jules Levin
Los Angeles