In II, when young Vito comes through Immigration on Ellis Island, the officer asks his name. Vito doesn't answer, so another officer reads his name, "Vito Andolini from Corleone." The first guy says, "Vito Corleone. Next..." That's his name for the rest of his life.

That happened in the same kind of way in my family. My father's father was an immigrant. He had a polysyllabic last name, but the immigration officer heard only the first syllable--and that became our family name in America.