I'm looking for Ivan Ivanovich... Which one?

Russian people have three names: given, patriarchal, and family name. The patriarchal name, called "ochestva" in Russian, comes from your father's name. For example, if your father's name is Vasili, your patriarchal name would be Vasiliovich if you are a man, or Vasilovna if you are a woman.

From my experience, I've noticed that they only use their family names on official documents and when people ask them to differentiate Natalia Ivanovna from another Natalia Ivanovna or between Pavel Vasilovich and another Pavel Vasilovich.

In Russian there are two forms of "you," informal and formal. When people address someone in the formal "you" they use their patriarchal name. For example, all the students address their teachers by their first name and patriarchal name. "Svetlana Simornova, I have a question." "Natalia Vasilovna, can I use the toilet?"

I was startled when my old colleague Boris scolded me for being late one morning. He said, "Natalia Charlie-anova!" It made me quite uncomfortable to be scolded by someone using my father's name. However, people are accustomed to hearing their father's name as part of their own.

The funny part of this is that while there are plenty of names to choose from in the Russian language, I find most people choose from the same selection of names. Tatiana, Natasha, Svetlana, Nadejda, Elena, Ivan, Vasili, and Pavel are the most popular. This makes it difficult to differentiate between one Natasha from another so I've had to learn to ask for people's patriarchal names upon meeting someone new.

In January St. John's day is celebrated. John is "Ivan" in Russian. People here celebrate the saint's day with whom they share the same name. It's like a second birthday! Because Ivan is such a popular name, I found myself at a party of Ivans two weeks ago: Nadia Ivanovna, Vanya (Vanya is a nickname for Ivan) Aforonosovich, Ivan, another Ivan, Valentina Ivanovna, and then I toasted to my little brother: John-Paul!

I'll end with one of my favorite stories in figuring out names here:
I hired a bus driver from the college to take our village kids to a nearby village for our softball camp last summer. I got the number of the driver, Ivan Ivanovich, but since I hate talking on the phone in Russian I was told I could find him behind the college.

I went behind the college building and found four men in a circle. I said, "Excuse me, I'm looking for Ivan Ivanovich." They all responded in unison, "Which one?"

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The picture is of me and my favorite Ivan: Vanya. In the fall he killed his grandson's pig to sell at the local market.