>>>>But neither spoke to us in other than English. Frankly, I loved the sound of Russian when my dad spoke to friends on the phone. It would have been nice to have been naturally tri-lingual.
>>>
>>>Your last name is definitely Russian <g>, though we would write it with v at the end.
>>
>>My last name did originally have a 'v'. It was Popov when my dad was born, but because he spoke only Russian while growing up, when he eventually moved to Winnipeg, he thought that 'w' was pronounced 'v', and spelled it that way. It was not a conscious thing, but it's been that way ever since. Some though, still wrote letters to my dad as Nick Popov. Some wrote to him as Nick Popoff.
>
>Wasn't there a guy named Popoff who claimed to have crossed the Atlantic in his 1-man submarine, from Nicolet PQ to the coast of France sometime in the 70s-80s in 1 day? Later found to have 1-way air Canada ticket in his pocket.

I hadn't heard that, and I don't know of any relatives by that name, but it certainly sounds like some one of my relatives might have done. Oh, wait, that would be relatives on my mom's side not my dad's. ;) My dad's family were all farmers and very down to earth. On my mom's side, however, there were some real characters.