 Ivan was the seventh child and second surviving son of Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin by his second wife, Princess Evdokiya Alexandrovna Gorbataya-Shuyskaya (d. 4 April 1581).Ivan had two half-sisters, the daughters of his father by an earlier marriage, and ten full siblings, many of whom died young.Among his full siblings was his elder brother Feodor Nikitich Romanov, the father of Mikhail Fedorovich, first Romanov Tsar of Russia.