[Fred Mertz]

His original name was James Joseph Yee.

[piasa]

While Joseph and Youssef are essentially different culture's expressions of the same name, I don't know if he changed the spelling from Joseph to Youssef in a legal way. Maybe he did and the dates where his paperwork changed are what the press is using as his "conversion" date.

If we can change our identity to another version of the same name and it all be A-OK with the license bureau, then I want to change mine... it's boring in its traditional English form.

[El Gato]

His original name was James Joseph Yee.

And Joseph is the same name as Youssef, just a slight pronunciation difference. Joseph was the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus as you'll recall, but I'll bet his name was actually closer to Youssef than Joseph. In Hebrew it's Yosef, and in Aramaic is pronounced "OYaOSeP", FWIW. In Spanish it's Jose.