There are over three dozen ways to spell Burke. And there are nearly 4 dozen varying ways to spell Baer. So don't be amazed to find out the spelling of your name has changed. Rather you should be shocked if you find out your name never was changed. There are basically four ways that names have changed over time.
Governments establish laws and regulations to keep names, records and information organized.
Bureaucracies, trying to follow the laws and regulations have made the biggest impact on name changes. Who hasn't heard of changes made to names at Ellis Island. There, you may have had an Irish clerk, with who knows how much education, struggling to understand a German or Italian accent, spelling the families's name for future generations. Families were given completely new names, because a clerk couldn't understand what was being said. Russian, Polish, German alphabets for example are not the same as ours so different letters for different sounds were used.