Question of the week #14

[treonb]

The writers of this show seem to have a love for full formal names when it comes to the KGB side of the Cold War. Philip is always Philip, never Phil, and Elizabeth is never Liz or Beth either--and this despite the fact that Russian names all inherently have multiple alternate forms that everyone simply uses as a matter of course. The same goes for Robert, the other Directorate S illegal who we've met, and for that matter, for Gregory (who's not Russian, but whose own culture isn't exactly known for its lack of informal names).

Given this, the question of the week is a two-parter: one, what do you think the writers are up to with this? And two, any thoughts on an explanation for this that works within the world of the show?

You can expect spoilers for the entire first season in the comments.

(There's no expiration date on these questions, so if you're reading this post months later and feel like jumping in, please do.)

Comments

[katiac]

See, that's what I found so funny... I can definitely hear her calling her Nadya/Nadenka at the beginning (if you're sure it's "Nadya" I may go back and edit that one spot in my fan fiction... I'd thought it was "Nadenka" but I have such a problem with the Russian pronunciations), but then there's also a place near the end where it's an obvious "Nadezhda." I found it odd that she would call her the nickname the first time, then the formal the second... hard to know what they would've used for all the time.

[jae]

No, no, I wasn't correcting you--it is 'Nadya' at the beginning and 'Nadezhda' at one later point. I just meant 'Nadya' would be the clear default for her mother; it's 'Nadezhda' that would be the marked (i.e. unusual) form, used to make a point in that moment.

-J