You should have said when and in which country this occurred. In early England there was no 'i' so they always used 'y' instead and when English started to solidify it went back and forth. If this happened in the US then probably someone of authority (a court clerk or teacher or someone) spelled it that way and taught it to the family as the proper way to spell the name. Changing the spelling but not the sound of the word would hardly allow a criminal to hide him/herself.
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