The Names

In Vienna, he met Ceil Chaiken, a survivor of the ghetto in Kovno, Lithuania; they were married in 1946. Three years later, the family came to the United States, where Mr. Welles adopted his new name. (He based his first name on his Hebrew name, Eliyahu. His original surname, Sauerquell, is German for “mineral wells” — hence Welles; he chose the spelling as an homage to Orson Welles, his son said.)
—from Margalit Fox's NYT obit for Elliot Welles, "indefatigable Nazi hunter"