Joseph Morris... if I may here... My family has a VERY long history of name changing. Every other generation or so someone or all of the siblings changed their names for one reason or another. It has made great fun for genealogy research I must tell you. First names, middle names, last names, they have all been changed. As you have not one but TWO very personal reasons here for changing your name and I have done the research on why the names were change in my family let me offer this to you...

Hopefully I have followed everything you have explained to us correctly, if not, please clarify and forgive me

First... you say you want to change your middle name to honor your Russian heritage for a father you have never known. Now, do you have some inner calling to Mother Russia even though you never had contact with your Russian side? I know that this can happen with people sometimes, they visit a place and all of the sudden, BAM, they have a stirring in them and they feel like a piece of them that was missing their whole life has now been found. If not, why a Russian name? You don't know your dad and your dad does not know you. And having a name, does it really honor something, if so, there would be a lot more Jesus, Israel, and Mary around, no? There would not be all these new names every year. It is how a person behaves that matters. You honor their memory and what they taught you. Their values and way of life and culture. Even though you are 1/2 Russian, having a Russian name is not the same as having Russian culture and being raised Russian and will not presto chango, make make you Russian. I have learned that by being on this forum

Second... you say that you do not get along with the family that you do know. I can understand that and see why you would want to "divorce" yourself from that name. But why pick any old name out of a hat? When I did research I saw thousands of names on microfiche that were just cut short from longer names and some names that were so far off the mark it made me wonder how on earth they came up with them. This is YOUR chance to do something for YOU. Have you ever related to a character in a book or movie and thought, "wow, that is me? that is how I feel" if so, why not select that name? Or, a person you want to be more like and can aspire to be? So every time you see your name you can remind yourself of your goal and once you reach it, you can be proud of who you have become. If your family is not what you want in life, who do you want?

Changing your name is one of those few times in life you get to do something for yourself that is really about YOU (especially if you don't have kids or a wife). You need to roll the name over on your tongue and practice saying it. Sign it a few hundred times. Try out your new initials and make certain you have not created a curse word with it when you do First Initial, Last Initial, Middle Initial on your new stationary.

If it just so happens to be Russian, fantastic! But don't limit yourself to a Russian name. Open up your mind to all the names in the world and think about the possibilities out there. What name calls to you?

If I have this all wrong... once again, please forgive me. And I vote for my favorite Russian name of them all Dmitri!