Great grandfather seems to have two different names?

Question

My-Great great grandfather Ignatious Beller shows up with the name Enoch on some records and Ignatious on other records I know it's the same person because all the other names and dates are right what gives?Can anyone explain that?

Answer 1

Enoch is the Hebrew name , which is often translated as Ignatious (Ignatz in German).

If your great grand father lived in bad times for Jewish in Europe, in a German speaking country, and for any reason was willing to don't show his origins or he had a name wrongly identifying him as a member of a community, he may have got used to use a German translation of  his original name .

The name , in any case, is the same in three languages

Answer 2

He was given one name and referred to as another.  I found this out when I traced my family roots.  Especially immigrants in the late 1800's and early 1900's when they had to give their name at Ellis Island upon disembarking the ships, the people/men taking the information wrote it down wrong when they could not understand what the person was saying since most of them could not speak English. My maternal great grandfather had a very different "birth" name and here in America was called Washington Howard Hoch.

Answer 3

Maybe if he immigrated from one country to another his name changed. That's very common.

Answer 4

They are all the same name. Enoch is Hebrew, Ignatius is the Latin, Ignatz is Germany.  Enoch means "dedicated, profound."  Ignatius means "ardent, burning."  

Answer 5

If I was called Ignatious at birth, I'd probably want to be called Enoch as well!  Some parents don't make things easy for their children at all in later life, so they?

Sounds like his parents were serious scholars of the bible.  Probably catholics.  I suspect he changed it himself to something a little less obscure.  I bet if his parents filled in the census forms he was "Ignatious" as a child, but later on to all his pals down the pub and on his own census form he put down "Enoch" instead as it was probably a name he couldn't stand.  I can only imagine what bullying he must have suffered at school with a name like that.