Jarrett Ross
Region: US
Saturday 03 October 2026 17:58:17 GMT
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Justin :
My family’s name used to be Leonardo. After Ellis island, they changed it to Leotardo
2026-10-04 04:53:30
819
J :
My great grandfather didn't have his name changed by Ellis Island, but he absolutely changed it at Ellis Island.
2026-10-04 05:54:53
2002
Abraham Lincoln :
Everyone in the comments is so sure they are different 😭😭
2026-10-04 06:26:27
367
bibsynbobsy :
This is not what they told me at ellis island
2026-10-04 03:54:14
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bluesaloon.68 :
Being of Italian descent and working on my genealogy, I can confirm this. Many changed their surnames for employment.
2026-10-03 20:44:26
291
Jason Caucutt :
People don’t realize how new “official spellings” are
2026-10-03 21:04:19
621
user793357835385 :
My great grandfather told me a lot of people changed their name to sound less German during the war. Barker became Baker, Schwartz became Black, Reiter became Rider, etc. The House of Windsor did the same thing.
2026-10-03 21:49:35
710
Rebecca(erthling91) :
My mother's grandfather literally changed his name via his Ellis Island intake paperwork, from Bosoth to Bishop, to hide his Prussian-Lithuanian ethnicity. The family found out after his death when they found a trunk in the attic with all of his papers in it. It wasn't a clerical error, it was intentional-and MANY people did the same or similar in changing the spellings of names, adding or subtracting them, or changing them entirely.
2026-10-04 06:02:08
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Seat4F :
I’m suspicious when people say never. It seems so obvious that some names were changed.
2026-10-04 12:23:11
188
lefty2073 :
Not entirely true and not entirely false
2026-10-04 14:12:02
15
777 :
My literal great grandfather told me that he removed the “evič” from the end of our name at ellis island
2026-10-04 11:05:35
10
Jeanette :
my family's names in europe were yiddish using the hebrew alphabet. so i would assume the latin alphabet spellings didn't matter to them. three brothers ended up with three different spellings of their last name.
2026-10-03 22:18:01
175
joebrohead :
My family changed their own name on the manifest because they were Irish and they knew Americans hated the Irish
2026-10-04 05:08:57
10
Leif Ericson :
My great grandfather changed his own name to sound more English.
2026-10-04 17:23:30
8
WorthTheRisk :
When I went through Ellis island they changed my last name from Ħķųðçřďæãœøøbðż to smith
2026-10-04 13:17:40
17
btenenbaum :
I teach history and have had to teach other history teachers this. I’ve explained that they had the same authority as a tsa agent to change names
2026-10-04 03:05:59
182
CyberMoe :
My name was not changed at Ellis Island but it was definitely changed at Starbucks.
2026-10-04 14:47:39
6
Omen_Gloomybun :
my favorite is German names that use are, ue or oe... for ä ü ö because it's what you do if you don't have dedicated umlauts.
2026-10-07 05:35:57
0
Jason Caucutt :
Foreign languages don’t even need to be involved. I think people don’t realize how most people pre-literacy were more concerned with how their name SOUNDED, a legal “official” spelling wasn’t a thing encountered daily or even monthly. They took their own best shot at it phonetically. Like take my surname: “Caucutt” when I hear a Brit say it? There sounds like a clipped “L” in there “cawl-cut”. So not surprised to learn it’s a derivative of Caldecott—a Brit saying them both super fast it sounds very similar orally. Somewhere along the line two or more spellings evolved in that region of the Midlands. No evil administrator arbitrarily decided to “change someone’s name”
2026-10-04 17:18:52
7
Hopecaerq :
The comments are more interesting than the video.
2026-10-04 11:25:25
6
anapantz :
It was also often changed by dockworkers and in port cities where passengers bought their tickets, where literacy rates were not always great or general confusion could happen.
2026-10-04 02:03:57
26
user190016022578 :
People flip out when you tell them this.
2026-10-03 20:39:53
30
Luke1Daisy2 :
Honestly, a lot of people just didn’t know what their family names actually were. My last name is St Pierre. Looking at papers going back 150 years in my ancestors OWN hand writing there are so many variations. Saint Pierre, Pierre, St Peter, Saint Peter, Peter. Which one is it actually? No idea…
2026-10-04 11:54:21
10
sofiddec2 :
I would like an explanation then how my great grandfather who moved to Oklahoma is named Christianson and his brother who came over from Norway 6 months later and moved to Michigan is named Christensen….our family reunion held rotating years in OK/MI is even called THE Christianson/Christensen Family Reunion 🤔
2026-10-04 07:10:12
8
clericofvecna :
I've read my great great grandfather's manifest and it was the old spelling of taite. he changed it himself years later to drop the I because the later documents of his death and the birth of my great grandfather drop the I. honestly a lot of families just Americanized themselves so others could spell the names.
2026-10-03 20:39:23
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