Russian names - A Study in Itself!

One of the most interesting challenges that I have faced so far in my Peter the Great project is deciphering the many forms that Russian names can take.

Today, most Russian names have a given name, a patronymic (which is not like our middle name) and a surname. The patronymic is a form of the father's name. It is not my intention to go into all the various forms as it gets very complicated. Here is an interesting link if you want to know more about how the patronymics are formed.
In earlier Russian history surnames were rare. However, the combination of the given plus patronymic plus surname was coming into use during the 17th century which is when Peter the Great lived. This was one complication I faced. Another is that Russian people can be referred to by a variety of combinations of their names with a leaning towards the use of simply the patronymic. And a whole other layer of complication arises from various ways to translate the Russian names into English.

So for one single figure in the history that I am studying I found:

Feodor Alexeevich Romanov
Feodor Aleksandrovich Romanov
Feodor III Alexeiovich Romanov
Feodor III
Fedor III
Theodore

This is Peter's half brother who was his predecessor. It is not even the most complicated example, just the first one that came to mind. I plan to write a section in my resources about Russian names as soon as I get them straight myself!