The Moonin name originates with the 1880s missionary John Moonin. In the 1830s John Moonin (Munin) was born in San Francisco. He was of Russian, American Indian, and Spanish ancestry. During the 1850s, Moonin and his first wife moved to Kodiak Island. After she died, he married Helen Medvidnikoff whose father was Russian and his mother was Aleut. John Moonin and his new wife volunteered to do missionary work in Seldovia during the 1860s. He was a lay reader and paid by the Russian government to conduct the activities of the church, including services and baptisms. After living in Seldovia a short time, they moved to Nanwalek where they settled.
One son of John and Helen Moonin was Nicholas Moonin, born in 1874, who became an Orthodox priest and the patriarch of Nanwalek until his death in 1972.
Another son, Demetrie Moonin, was the father of Aphanasia “Jessie” Moonin, who married James Howard Carlough and then Harry David Barnhart.