Patronymic names are important in some countries. Iceland does not have a concept of 'family name' in the way that many other European countries do, for example. Erik Magnusson and Erika Magnusdottir are siblings, both offspring of Magnus, irrespective of his patronymic name. In Bulgaria and Russia, patronymic names are in every day usage, for example, the Sergeyevich in 'Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev'. Patronymic names refer to a father's given name, not the family name inherited from the mother and father as is the case in countries such as Spain and Portugal. Again referring to the example of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's, the patronymic name element would be unused.

Sergeyevich