I, for one, am mostly persuaded by SRS's debunking of the "Ellis Island Name Change" myth. I never worked there, but I have visited and studied about the immigration process. The facility was always staffed by bilingual/multilingual individuals (many of them immigrants themselves) who were prepared to speak and deal with incoming folks of whatever nationalities were arriving on a given day.

On the other hand, I'm sure that the staff was working under severe time pressure most of the time, and undoubtedly resorted to simplified, phonetic, or "Anglicized" versions of some of the least familiar names on rare occasions. Over time, the extent of such alterations has undoubtedly been exaggerated.

My own family name changed -- slightly -- upon immigration to the US: from Heneghan to Henehan. The family patriarch and first immigrant, my great-uncle Luke, undoubtedly decided to do so on his own. Both spellings can be found in Ireland, although the original (well, more original) spelling, with the "g," is still much more common than the simplified/Anglicized version.

But -- neither Luke nor any of the family members who followed him came in through Ellis Island. Only steerage (3d class) passengers were processed at Ellis. After hearing about people being turned back -- I believe the story is that a fellow villager was sent back after contracting an eye infection during the voyage west -- Luke resolved not to make the move to America until he could pay for the much less risky second-class passage.

Second class passengers stayed on the ship as it stopped at Ellis Island, and disembarked at the west side docks in Manhatten, where there was a much less crowded and less frantic immigration facility and where one could be met and shepherded through the process by one's "sponsoring" friend or family member.

A few years later, his younger brother, my paternal grandfather, moved from County Mayo to Liverpool with his new bride to work for two years and save enough money for their second-class tickets. They had to buy three, because my Aunt Peg was born in the meanwhile, in Liverpool. They travelled via the White Star Line, on the very next passage after the Titanic disaster; family legend has it that the three of them would have been on the Titanic, but had to delay their trip when baby Peg came down with the flu.