There is no suggestion by Moroni as to why the chief character in the narrative is known as “the brother of Jared.” Daniel H. Ludlow offered three possible reasons why the actual name is not used: the brother of Jared himself, out of modesty, may have intentionally omitted his name, just as the apostle John did as he prepared his Gospel; the final writer of the plates of Ether was a direct descendant of Jared (Ether 1:6, 32) and wanted to emphasize the name of his progenitor; or Moroni may have felt the name was too difficult to adequately translate into the Nephite language.2
In 1892 George Reynolds wrote that Joseph Smith revealed the name of the brother of Jared: “While residing in Kirtland Elder Reynolds Cahoon had a son born to him. One day when President Joseph Smith was passing his door he called the Prophet in and asked him to bless and name the baby. Joseph did so and gave the boy the name of Mahonri Moriancumer. When he had finished the blessing he laid the child on the bed, and turning to Elder Cahoon he said, the name I have given your son is the name of the Brother of Jared; the Lord has just shown (or revealed) it to me. Elder William F. Cahoon, who was standing near, heard the Prophet make this statement to his father; and this was the first time the name of the brother of Jared was known in the Church in this dispensation.”3