Work Text:
Names are important. Names are not that important.
Both statements are true.
– –
Names convey codes. The code varies from class to class, to country to country, language to language.
On her SHIELD forms, she writes her name as 'Natasha Ksenja Romanoff', and while Barton says nothing, Coulson glances at her.
“Not Romanova?” he asks.
(They've been calling her 'Natalia Romanova' for years.)
“No,” she says.
– –
Her parents called her Nataliya Alianovna Romanova, presumably because after growing up with the name 'Alian', her father wanted her to have a sensible name.
Mostly, she thinks the normality of 'Nataliya' makes his name stand out even more, but it's not as if the man is around for her to point this out.
Nataliya, daughter of Alian Romanov.
This is what her name means: that she is a daughter of a father.
– –
Her mother was Ksenja Romanova; professional name, Dr Sharonova. In Russian, her existence left no mark on her daughter's name.
Natasha can claim her in English, on visa forms and confidentiality forms and forms that say she understands that her life is on probation.
Once, her mother threw her from a window so that she would live. Natasha doesn't count herself any more superstitious than would be normal for a person whose job often depends on luck (spies are, perhaps, like sailors in that regard), but she feels a little more secure linking her mother's name to hers.
– –
No one asks why she uses 'Natasha' instead of 'Natalia'.
She doesn't offer an explanation.
– –
“'Romanoff',” she corrects, and Banner raises his eyebrows at her a little.
“You don't have to Anglicise your name if you don't want to,” he comments.
“I know. I wanted to.”
Banner ducks his head a little, looks at her over his glasses. “Might I ask about the two 'f's? It's a little old-fashioned.”
She raises her eyebrows back. “I liked the way it looked,” she says, mildly.
“Aesthetics.”
“If you're choosing your own name, why not?”
“You normally prefer aesthetics over accuracy?”
Natasha will give him this much: she's not sure if it's an honest question, or another attempt at being subtly condescending. Natasha, he said in Kolkata, as if he had a right it.
“Names,” she says at last, “are more personal than most translations. Besides, if I left it a 'v' some well-meaning individual would add an 'a' to it.” Like Banner himself had just done.
Banner takes the glasses off to look at her properly. “You don't like 'Romanova'?”
“I don't like being coded as a woman until I have to be.” She smiles, a little. “Which also means it's 'Agent', not 'Miss'.”
To his credit, Banner gets the hint.
Maybe he's not so bad after all.
– –
Names are not a question of 'true' or 'false' in Natasha's world, but a question of setting, relationships, rights, and ownership.
Nataliya Alianovna Romanova.
Natasha Ksenja Romanoff.
Both are, in their ways, equally true.
Names only have the importance that people place on them, and she hasn't been Romanova for a long time.
She likes keeping it that way.