While many immigrants change their names to blend into their new homeland, the early Zionists did not think of themselves as immigrants to Palestine and did not change their names to be more like the local Jewish, Christian, or Muslim Arabs. They called themselves colonists, but traditionally, colonists keep the names they had in the countries of their birth. Zionists, however, changed their names to make new identities in a new community. This kind of name-changing is unprecedented for colonists, but it is common for cultists who want to divorce their members from their past.