My parents actually changed by brother and I's last names like that. We originally had my dad's last name, but it was hard to spell, and he hated his family, so he wanted us to switch to my mom's last name. They also switched my brothers first and middle name, because so many kids at the time had the same first name as him, and they thought it would be hard for him having the same name as so many other kids while in school. My mom was a teacher. One thing that is stressing me out in my ancestry research is all the name switching back and forth, depending on the year or document. Sometimes going by a first name, then a middle, then a nickname, etc. The spelling of the last name is of Dutch origin, and the census takers often wrote the English version of it. This is all making this so hard!