Naming after immigration Molokans are known for having different spellings of last names within the same immediate family for a few reasons. When Molokans arrived in the United States, some family names were horribly misspelled by immigration officials who could not read Cyrillic—for example, "Сусоев" became "Sessoyeff," which is unpronounceable in English. Also, like members of other pacifist communities, some Molokans changed the spelling of their names to avoid deportation. Many chose to use American versions of their names. So "Vasilli Bukroff" becomes "Bill" or "William Bukroff" or "Ivan Metchikoff" will become "John Mitchell" and "Dunya Tikunov" will be "Julie Tyler". They also sometimes use "first names" that are not their legal names and are based on nicknames from childhood within the church that stuck with people as adults. For example, "Hazel Valov" became known as "Percy Valov", for being very "persistent". Another naming custom that can confuse those who are unfamiliar with the community was practiced by Molokans who settled in the Guadalupe Valley, Mexico. Many settlers adopted the Mexican versions of their names, so Rodion Pavlov became "Rodolfo Pabloff," and they named their children following the Mexican format. Accordingly, one will see what would have been a Russian name like "Ivan Pavilovich Pabloff" (Ivan son of Pavil (Paul) (Pavlov)), whose mother's maiden name is "Samarin," become "Juan Pablo Pabloff de Samarin" or "Juan Samarin Pabloff". In all these instances, tracing family history can be very difficult. Otherwise, they adhere to the common naming practices. A lot can be learned from a Russian headstone which will commonly go back to the use of the Russian naming protocol regardless of what name the individual used while alive. If translated correctly, one should learn the names of an individual's father and grandfather from a male's headstone. If it is displayed in English at the bottom it most likely will not contain the information.
Naming after immigration Molokans are known for having different spellings of last names within the same immediate family for a few reasons. When Molokans arrived in the United States, some family names were horribly misspelled by immigration officials who could not read Cyrillic—for example, "Сусоев" became "Sessoyeff," which is unpronounceable in English. Also, like members of other pacifist communities, some Molokans changed the spelling of their names to avoid deportation. Many chose to use American versions of their names. So "Vasilli Bukroff" becomes "Bill" or "William Bukroff" or "Ivan Metchikoff" will become "John Mitchell" and "Dunya Tikunov" will be "Julie Tyler". They also sometimes use "first names" that are not their legal names and are based on nicknames from childhood within the church that stuck with people as adults. For example, "Hazel Valov" became known as "Percy Valov", for being very "persistent". Another naming custom that can confuse those who are unfamiliar with the community was practiced by Molokans who settled in the Guadalupe Valley, Mexico. Many settlers adopted the Mexican versions of their names, so Rodion Pavlov became "Rodolfo Pabloff," and they named their children following the Mexican format. Accordingly, one will see what would have been a Russian name like "Ivan Pavilovich Pabloff" (Ivan son of Pavil (Paul) (Pavlov)), whose mother's maiden name is "Samarin" become "Juan Pablo Pabloff de Samarin" or "Juan Samarin Pabloff". In all these instances, tracing family history can be very difficult. Otherwise, they adhere to the common naming practices. A lot can be learned from a Russian headstone which will commonly go back to the use of the Russian naming protocol regardless of what name the individual used while alive. If translated correctly, one should learn the names of an individual's father and grandfather from a male's headstone. If it is displayed in English at the bottom it most likely will not contain the info,rmation.