It does not matter how long you’ve been researching a family–new variant spellings can always pop up. Most immigrants from my Trautvetter family were 19th century immigrants to the central United States (Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri) and used mainly a handful of similar spellings (Trautvetter, Trautfetter, Troutvetter, and Troutfetter). Their name would occasionally get spelled incorrectly in a record here or there, but the members of the family used a name that sounded like “Trautfetter.” There was always a “Tr,” some vowels, a “t,” a “v” or an “f” and then “etter.”
Except for a new guy I discovered.
An earlier immigrant from this family settled in Massachusetts in the 1760s and used the name Trofatter after his 1767 marriage. It gets spelled several different ways–all of which are similar to “Trofatter.” That name is still used by his descendants.
There’s always a chance that there’s one more variant out there that you’ve not thought of.