It may also occur in the same language.

In an Algonkin dialect _missi wabu_ means "the great light of the dawn;" and a common large rabbit was called _missabo_; at some period the precise meaning of the former words was lost, and a variety of interesting myths of the daybreak were transferred to a supposed huge rabbit! Rarely does there occur a more striking example of how the deteriorations of language affect mythology.
_Aztlan_, the mythical land whence the Aztec speaking tribes were said to have come, and from which they derived their name, means "the place of whiteness;" but the word was similar to _Aztatlan_, which would mean "the place of herons," some spot where these birds would love to congregate, from _aztatl_, the heron, and in after ages, this latter, as the plainer and more concrete signification, came to prevail, and was adopted by the myth-makers.
_Polyonomy_ is another procedure often seen in these myths.

A divinity has several or many titles; one or another of these becomes prominent, and at last obscures in a particular myth or locality the original personality of the hero of the tale.

In America this is most obvious in Peru.
Akin to this is what Prof.Max Mueller has termed _henotheism_.

In this mental process one god or one form of a god is exalted beyond all others, and even addressed as the one, only, absolute and supreme deity.