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But OP said the dates of birth did not match, or birth order was different.
The OP said an aunt claimed the birth order of her father (OP's grandfather) and uncles was wrong. But my own kids have gotten mixed up on the birth order of siblings in my family, so I wouldn't assume the aunt's memory is reliable.
It sounds like they chose American names after arriving. Or it's possible the people processing them through Immigration did that, but I haven't heard of that going on with first names. Mainly with last names that get simplified or Americanized. Was there any change to the last name, or was it simple enough, that it wouldn't have presented a problem?
It's a myth that American immigration officials changed immigrants names during processing.
Ellis Island inspectors were not responsible for recording immigrants’ names. Instead, any error likely happened overseas.
As for Hungarian names. I found out while researching my grandfather that his Hungarian birth record and immigration ship passenger list shows his name was Johan Folyi but the first US census in 1910 he was recorded as John Foley. All the Foley family members "Americanized" their names on that same census. Interestly, relatives with the same family name living a few doors down on the same street were recorded as Folyi. So I deduced either John/Johan's parents changed it or the enumerator did. I will never know. By the way, they lived in an Irish part of town so perhaps they changed it to fit in!
My (Irish) grandmother's given names are Ita Patricia. I found her in a census listed as Isus Patritius or similar, so I know they all had Latin saint names or something. I hadn't realized until finding the birth records in Hungary that my grandfather was also Catholic. Everything seems to fit except for the change from Ferdinandus to Frederick.
My grandfather's last name did change, but only by losing a Z. But it's a common enough name that I've seen it (mis)spelled in about 100 different ways. And yes, he and his brothers were all born in the 1880s.
My stepfather was born in 1925 and between he and his siblings, they spell their last name several different ways.
My great grandfathers last name starts Cz. Some of the ones who came over had different spellings where they dropped the Z or used the Z, dropping the C then spelling it the way it sounds. I'm pretty sure that their travel documents were the originators of the wrong spelling since a lot of people did not know how to read and write. One of them who was spelled right, at some point after getting here changed the spelling from 6 letters to about 10 to spell it phonetically.
My daughters fathers Polish side last name has cys zyn which were dropped in order to shorten the name. Only one of her great grandfathers did it, none of their kids used this new name. I'm not sure at what point he changed his last name, I'm not seeing a paper trail for it up until the 1940 census. I'll have to look them up in the 1950 one to see what name they're using, if it's the full or shortened. He and his wife were buried with this wrong name.
My grandfather’s first name was apparently Ferdinand according a certificate of baptism, issued by a pastor, listing him and his siblings, just prior to the family’s immigration to Canada from Russian Volhynia. The family was culturally German. The father’s name was Friedrich.
Once in Canada, the first census record in 1901 lists Ferdinand as Ferdinand. After that the census records list him as Frederick or Fred. I always refer to him as Ferdinand to differentiate him from his father who was also called Frederick in Canada.
Regarding Hungarian records, from my experience researching them in connection with another family branch, it seems to have been the practice to translate any German first name to the Hungarian equivalent on baptism and later civil birth records. Hence Stefan became Istvan. Perhaps it was the law. I found this site useful to translate the Hungarian recorded name back to the German name: https://www.behindthename.com/.
My advice is to pencil the family in if everything else matches, but note your aunt's oral history of a different birth order.
My guess is this is the same guy.........but I have learned to disregard the old timers at your own risk! Some things my grandmother said that seemed far fetched, nonsensical, or down right mythical, ended up being confirmed by the census and other records.
Name changes, especially with emigration to America, were very common, often bc the country of origin name was hard to pronounce or seen as too exotic.
If this were my situation I would assume a "discovery" rather than a discrepancy or error. Do make note of the aunt's contribution and memory but it's highly likely you have your man.
Name change was a common practice in the 19th C. even among native born.
My great granduncle changed his name when he went to California after the Civil War. Reason unknown. When I met his great granddaughter through genealogy she was completely unaware that he had changed his name. I showed her his original name on his birth record, she was floored!
My grandfather was named for this gentleman (original name), in the family papers is a letter from him to my grandfather saying grandfather was named after him. I showed the letter to her, I think that's only when she believed it.
So these changes can happen without other family members knowing anything about them. Perhaps that's true in OP's aunt's case.
Boys commonly were baptized with the first name Johannes (or Johann, often abbreviated Joh). German girls were baptized Maria, Anna or Anna Maria. This tradition started in the Middle Ages.
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The second name, known as the Rufname, along with the surname is what would be used in marriage, tax, land and death records.
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By the 19th century, more Germans gave their children three names. Again, typically only one of the middle names was used throughout the person’s life.
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The most common pattern would be for sons to be named in this order:
* first born, for father’s father
* second born, mother’s father
* third born, father of the child
* fourth born and on, uncles of the child
A similar pattern was used for daughters e.g. father’s mother, mother’s mother
This pattern might be helpful in trying to identify grandparents.
My great grand father 's birth name was Fridolin Melchoir and was born in Himmelstadt in the 1860s. Being Catholics, he was named for two saints. Now when he came here with Anna his wife, He changed his name to Fred M.
his three sons were Fred, Ferdinand and William. Grandpa's nickname was Ferd,. He was often called Ferdy by close friends as well.
My daughter has a German/Czech gr-gr-grandfather (wife's ancestor) who was names Václav but became William when he reached adulthood in the US (late 1800s). Václav is actually Wenceslas but he decided to go with a more American name of William. There were two brothers named Václav in the family (for some reason) and they both took common American names rather than Wenceslas.
My father's name was actually four given names -- borrowed from prior paternal and maternal generations. He took the first name (his father's), but he didn't settle on a single middle name until he was grown. You see different combinations and initials.
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