Note: A previous version of this article stated Adolf Hitler's grandfather was theorized to be Johann Georg Hiedler, but we've corrected it to say it's suspected his biological grandfather was聽a Jewish man named Leopold Frankenberger.

What's in a name? Letters. And numbers聽if you're Elon Musk's聽son. But it can also contain shame, especially if your last name is Hitler. That now-anathema family name would have been Schicklgruber if Adolf's father, Alois Schicklgruber, hadn't changed it to Hitler, the name of his mother's husband, in January 1877, (per Thought Co.聽and History) 10 years before Adolf darkened the world's doorstep. Adolf the artificial Hitler would go on to make a name for himself as Nazi Germany's genocidal leader and implement a system of selective child-rearing based on racial "purity." He basically envisioned women聽as pious brood mares who would populate the world with blue-eyed, blond-haired Aryans.

Ironically, if Hitler knew the roots of his own family tree, he might have taken an ax to it. History writes聽that his father may have been the son of an unwed maid, Maria Schicklgruber, and a member of the Jewish family she worked for named Leopold Frankenberger. Belgian researchers conducted a DNA analysis on Hitler's jawbone and found evidence of Jewish and African ancestry. He never had children of his own, and his surviving relatives became ashamed of the family name.