Editing Isaac Asimov (section)

==<span id="name"></span>Surname==
{{blockquote|There are three very simple English words: 'Has', 'him' and 'of'. Put them together like this—'has-him-of'—and say it in the ordinary fashion. Now leave out the two h's and say it again and you have Asimov.|Asimov, 1979<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |page=12 |year=1979}}</ref>}}
Asimov's family name derives from the first part of {{lang|ru|озимый хлеб}} ({{transliteration|ru|ozímyj khleb}}), meaning '[[winter cereals|winter grain]]' (specifically [[rye]]) in which his great-great-great-grandfather dealt, with the Russian surname ending ''-ov'' added.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |year=1979 |pages=8, 10–11}}</ref> Azimov is spelled {{lang|ru|Азимов}} in the [[Cyrillic alphabet]].<ref name="azimov">{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |page=11}}</ref> When the family arrived in the United States in 1923 and their name had to be spelled in the [[Latin alphabet]], Asimov's father spelled it with an S, believing this letter to be pronounced like Z (as in German), and so it became Asimov.<ref name="azimov"/> This later inspired one of Asimov's short stories, "[[Spell My Name with an S]]".<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov |publisher=Grafton Books |year=1987 |location=Glasgow |page=243}}</ref>

Asimov refused early suggestions of using a more common name as a pseudonym, believing that its recognizability helped his career. After becoming famous, he often met readers who believed that "Isaac Asimov" was a distinctive pseudonym created by an author with a common name.{{r|earlyyears79_82}}