Law of adoption (Mormonism)

The law of adoption was a ritual practiced in temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) between 1846 and 1894 in which men who held the priesthood were sealed in a father–son relationship to other men who were not part of nor even distantly related to their immediate nuclear family. == Practice == Some younger men who were sealed by the law of adoption were called "sons" and took the surname of the older man, whom they called their "father".

Source: Wikipedia — Law of adoption (Mormonism) (CC BY-SA 4.0)