BLACK WIDOW RPERS :: All Black Widow roleplayers (especially the MCU lot) need to know that her real name is Natalia Romanova. Romanoff is the male form. Romanova is the female. This is simple, standard Russian name design. All female derivatives of ‘off’ end in ‘ova’. As for ‘Natalia’, Bucky himself has said (during a Captain America issue) ‘I’m the only one who has known her long enough to use her real name’. Natasha Romanoff is incorrect. Natalia Romanova is correct.
Honestly, correct me if I’m wrong, but ‘ROMANOV’ is the male form. ‘ROMANOFF’ is merely the americanized / english form. It is correct that ‘ova’ is the standard ending for female names, but ‘ov’ (in this case, at least) would be the correct standard ending for male names, not ‘off’. Yes, ‘Natalia Romanova’ is her real, birth name, but she is legally known as ‘Natasha Romanoff’ —- which, by the way, is canon. Please, do some research before accusing all roleplayers of a character of making a ‘mistake’ that isn’t even factual.
If you want to get even more deeper with Russian names, Natasha is still correct. Many Russian given names have a number of possibilities because of their diminutives. Diminutives are variations on a name that express a certain connotation, so the neutral variation for Natalia would be Natasha in the same way the name Jennifer could be shortened to Jen (just an example- not saying that’s a translation of Natalia). So, yea, not technically wrong. Going even further, Natasha shortens even more to variants such as (but not limited to) Natashka, Nata (more so in Ukraine though), or Natulka much like how we would take Jen and make the endearing variant Jenny. However, Russian goes even further with given names by as there are even variants with pejorative connotations. I’m not too sure on a pejorative for Natalia (because I’ve never known someone named that close enough), but if I’d have to guess- Natochka or Nalchik. Now my actual point: How many of you guys knew all that before I took the time to type that out? In my experience when I explain this to someone who isn’t of direct Russian decent or hasn’t studied the language in a school environment they say they have learned something. Especially the part about pejoratives. What I’m trying to say is that things like this aren’t widely known in western society, so you shouldn’t go bashing people for not being super knowledgeable when they are just having fun with a hobby…
Source: 2 full years of learning Russian at a University level











