Or Akan (Gen. 36:27). The difference in this instance probably resulted from the fact that in Genesis the name Akan is preceded by the conjunction “and,” which in Hebrew is expressed simply by prefixing the letter w to a word. This w standing for the conjunction “and” may have been interpreted by some scribe as a y.

The numerous variations in the forms of many names in Chronicles though due, in part, to mistaking one Hebrew letter for another in handwritten lists, are not all necessarily errors of transcription. Not only were different names sometimes applied to the same person, but there seems to have been great latitude in spelling ancient names, as can be illustrated from non-Biblical records also. The Persian king known to the Jews as ’Achashwerosh, (in the KJV, Ahasuerus, from the Latin form), and to the Greeks as Xerxes, was known in Persia as Khshayarsha and was spelled in documents from other parts of his empire as Achshiyarshu, Achshimarshu, Hishiyarshu, etc. To the Egyptians he was known as Chsharsha, Chshayarsha, etc. Furthermore, Xerxes’ father, whom we call Darius (Latin), was Dareios to the Greeks, Daryavesh to the Jews, Tariyamaush to the Susians, Dariyamush to the Babylonians, and Darayavaush to the Persians.

Sometimes the same man bore totally unrelated names; the pretender who posed as Bardiya, the brother of Cambyses and whose real name was Gaumata, was called by the Greek writers Smerdis.