Russian makes a distinction between ты, singular "you", and вы, plural "you" (y'all). The latter also doubles for "polite" you, with verbs also in plural. And don't forget that the "excuse" in "Excuse me" is a verb!
As you might know if you ever read any Russian literature, Russians have three names; their first name and their surname—just like you have—and a patronymic (отчество), which is based on their father's name (отец = father). A very common 'polite' pattern is to use a person's first name and a patronymic:
In this course, name+patronymic are always used with the polite вы-form.
«Как вас зову́т?» is literally "How (do) they call you?"
Russian has a casual diminutive form for many common names, : Ива̓н→Ва́ня, Мари́я→Маша, Алекса́ндр(Алекса́ндра)→Са́ша, Евге́ний(Евге́ния)→Же́ня, Еле́на→Ле́на, Алексе́й→Лёша, Пётр→Пе́тя. Needless to say, there's no "politeness" with these, but they are often used with some degree of affection.
Russian has two very common polite patterns for questions that English does not:
«Спаси́бо» is the word. A fancier option would be «Благодарю́!» (a form of the verb «благодари́ть», "to thank"), though quite a number of people use it, if only for variety.