Jeremy,
I have seen brothers with the same Hebrew given names >from the same general
era you describe, and attribute this to an effort to "hide" one of them from
the government's effort to draft boys. Only one is recorded in a census
record, so when authorities come around looking for him, they are only
looking for one. But I think this only applies where the two sons are close
in age. Were I you, Jeremy, I would quadruple check all of the information
you have for accuracy, to make sure in fact the two men had the same father,
as you may have made an incorrect assumption. Too often, what seems like an
unusual surname can be quite common in a small community, and
cousins/relatives of about the same age can be born with identical names
(given and surnames -- Abraham in this case), and might even have children,
separately, who they give the same name to (Yechezkial Leib, in this case).
I'd make sure that Abraham Deguts, with two different wives, as you've
concluded, is actually one person and not two. If two people, they very
likely may have named their sons after the same revered community
member/ancestor/relative. This possibility seems more likely given the 25
year difference between the two identically named men, who you think are
half brothers. Given the date of that generation, it may be simply that you
don't have adequate data to conclude one way or the other.

Jim Yarin
Acton, MA

<<I have a question about naming traditions that I'd like to seek people's
opinion on:
A while ago, I discovered an old Russian record which indicated that my
wife's great-grandfather Asker Deggots (Hebrew name Yechezkiel ben Avraham)
had an older half-brother called Hatskel Leib Deguts, who was born in Russia
about 25 years before Asker was born. They had the same father but different
mothers. I always assumed that this older half-brother must have died before
Asker was born, as surely the father, Abraham Deguts, wouldn't have given
the same Hebrew name to two sons....however, this week, I discovered that a
man called Leib Degutz emigrated >from Russia to the US in the 1890s. As the
surname Deggots / Degutz is so rare (perhaps unique?), it seemed highly
likely that this Leib Degutz came >from the same family as Asker. When I
looked further into this, I discovered that Leib Degutz was the son of an
Abraham Degutz, and he was born around the same time as Asker's half-brother
Hatskel Leib Deguts . Could Leib and Hatskel Leib be the same person, I
wondered? Yesterday, I found a photo of Leib's daughter's gravestone, and
this gives the Hebrew name of her father as Yechezkiel Yehuda. As Leib is a
common Yiddish kinnui for Yehuda, it seems pretty certain that the Leib
Degutz who went to the US was indeed Asker's half-brother.

But is this possible??? Does anyone know if it has ever been common practice
for two sons to have the same Hebrew name at the same time? Does it make a
difference that they were only half-brothers, and one was Yechezkiel (known
as Asker) while the other was Yechezkiel Yehuda (known as Leib)?
Many thanks,
Jeremy Schuman>>