I thought it was interesting because I recently learned that the whole name-changing thing is a myth. A genealogist dude told my dad, who told me, and then I did some internet searching, which proved fruitful. Nothing overly official, but these sites all seemed to say the same thing.
According to the World Wide Web (and the genealogist dude), most paperwork was filled out in the immigrants' home countries, not upon arrival. Additionally, there were tons of language interpreters at Ellis Island, so there was less opportunity for miscommunication than is popularly imagined. While a few names were probably changed at Ellis Island, most of them were changed during the naturalization process, years later, when the immigrants realized that having an ethnic name wasn't always super advantageous.
People still do it, of course, though mostly they're attempting to become famous. Et tu, Jon Stewart?
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