Since the name was given at baptism, all the names were written in that record. There might be more than 3. I have ancestors who had four, even in this country. One used his fourth name as the call name and even legal name.   One simple dropped the fourth name and it was never seen again.   If the name the person used in Germany was hard for American tongues to say, or sounded strange, they would change their call name after they were in America awhile. So German records would have one name, and American records the other name.   And some people probably just decided they liked one name better than the other, just as people have always done and still do. LaVerne, Researching BACHMANN, BOEHMKE, HEMMANN, HEINEMANN, LANDL, LINHARDT, OTTO, PIETSCHMANN, ROEHL, SEHLER, SIEVERS, TELLE, ZACHARIAE, ZEITLER