In the city where I live we have a lot of migrants – from India and Iran and elsewhere – and it’s not unusual for them to have both an “Aussie name” and a birth name. The reason for this is quite simple: their native languages often contain sounds and linguistic conventions that aren’t found in English, so names in these languages can be very hard for English speakers to pronounce accurately, even more so if they’re reading the name. So new Australians often find life is a whole lot simpler if they just adopt a local alternative. Sometime it is just a simplified, more Aussie sounding transliteration of their birth name. Other times they take on a completely different name for use with Aussie friends.
It wasn’t so different for ancient Jews when interacting with non-Jews throughout the multicultural Roman Empire. Sometimes they used a transliteration, as did Saul when travelling beyond Judea, using the name Paul. Sometimes they chose a more direct translation, as did Cephas aka Peter. Sometimes they chose (or were given) a new name altogether. An example of this from the Old Testament is when Daniel was given the name Belteshazzar by the Babylonians.
Which brings us to the name of Jesus. I frequently see people expressing confusion, even anger, upon learning that Jesus was not called Jesus
The name Jesus is the English translation of the Latin name Iesus, which is in turn a translation of the Greek name Iesous, which is in turn a translation of the Hebrew name Yeshua.
His original name, in Hebrew and Aramaic, was Yeshua, which is a shortened form of Yehoshua, which means God saves
Muslims tend to mean different things by Christ and Messiah. How many understand that for me, as a Christian, when I use the words I do so interchangeably? That I am merely switching languages, not theology? So it makes no difference, doctrinally, for me to speak of Jesus the Christ or Yeshua the Messiah or Isa al Masih?
Curious Christian 
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