Hathorne v. Hawthorne

[michelleb07]

In class we touched upon why Hathorne changed his name to Hawthorne and while most sources I found stated the change was a result of pronunciation changes the site below gave a reason more along the lines of what we discussed. The site says that as a result of feeling guilty for "sharing the blood" of John Hathorne (the witch trials judge from The Crucible) and Puritan maistrate William Hathorne N. Hawthorne added the 'w' into his name when he was in his twenties. Which reason do you think it was?

Here's the site if you're interested, it goes into detail about Hawthorne's life & ancestors:
www.literarytraveler.com/literary_articles/nathaniel_hawthorne_salem.aspx

[christinec02]

I believe that it was out of guilt that the the last name was changed, although the pronunciation most likely did change, I am no sure if there would be a change in how the last name is spelled. The guilt that was felt would be enough to change his last name, the history of what occurred has been passed down through generations and students learn about all that occurred in school, so the legacy and guilt associated with what occurred lived on; therefore I believe that it was due to guilt.