the name has numerous variant spellings which include ertler, ort, delort, deshorts, huerta, horta, ohrtman, van oort, ortet and ortel, to name but a few. although some have changed the name of a variety of personal reasons, a common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error. among the lower classes of european society, and especially among less educated people, people were willing to accept the mistakes of officials, clerks, and priests as an official new version of their surname, just as they had meekly accepted the surname they had been born with. in north america, the linguistic problems confronting immigration officials at ellis island in the 19th century were legendary as a prolific source of anglicization.