When Hyman was naturalised a British subject in 1927 it was Hetchin which was presuambly an anglicisation of his original Lithuanian name. On his death certificate it was Hetchins. I think Hyman found that Hetchins rolled off the English tongue easier than Hetchin. As others have pointed out the name appears in two ways on the bikes. As with so many things in the English language there is more than one correct answer. True pedants should probably call the early machines Hetchin's and later ones Hetchins but I don't know when the change came about.
Hilary Stone
----------
>From: Sheldon Brown <CaptBike@sheldonbrown.com>
>To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>Subject: [CR]Hetchins or Hetchin's?
>Date: Wed, Jun 27, 2001, 4:10 pm
>
> There seems to be some confusion about the orthography of this great
> marque. Can anybody give a definitive answer?
>
> I've seen it both ways, and I've seen the family name of the builder
> both as "Hetchins" (in which case the apostrophe would be an error)
> and "Hetchin" (in which case the apostrophe could be correct.)
>
> Sheldon "Wants To Get It Right, Now That I Own One" Brown
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