Thursday 14 October 2010

Imp


I often get asked about my name, my Christian name (I, at lest, still use that expression!). Am I Russian, have I some Russian influence in my background, am I named after the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov? It's a measure, I suppose, of how unusual this name still is in England. Let me tell you how unusual. When the movie Anastasia was released, a movie I still love, I was asked by my classmates if it was about me! It's an illusion that my parents did nothing to dispel. The truth, as always, is wholly mundane. My grandmother, my mother's mother, was also Anastasia, though I have no idea why.

Still the association with the tragic Grand Duchess has always fascinated me. She was the youngest of the last Tsar's four daughters, who referred to themselves collectively as OTMA, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. I'm not quite sure why but Anastasia, possibly because she was the youngest daughter, the youngest of the Romanov children until her brother Alexi was born in August 1904, has attracted a particular romance, something that the Disney corporation, amongst others, exploited. The popular rumour was that she survived the massacre of her family by the communists in 1918, a rumour that allowed various pretenders to arise, the most notable of whom is one Anna Anderson. It's all rubbish of course; Anastasia, Saint Anastasia in the Orthodox Church, died with her parents, her sisters and her brother.

There is one small and competently unimportant coincidence, a connection between the Grand Duchess and myself, something that overwhelmed me when I discovered what it was. When I set up this blog in April of last year I decided to call it Ana the Imp. Ana is simple enough, just an abbreviation of my name. An imp is a mischievous little devil, which suited my character, so Ana the Imp it was. It was when I decided to write an article on the Grand Duchess that I discovered in my researches that her nickname within the family was Shvibzak. The thing is, you see, Shvibzak is the Russian word for imp.

41 comments:

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  2. Ah, Anthony, I rather assumed I was a reincarnation of Cleopatra. :-))

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  4. Interesting point about the names, but surely boys names like Edward, Raymond, Edmund and Edgar are all Germanic in origin?

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  7. Fair enough. The word regret probably isn't in your particular lexicon...it remains the foremost word in my vocabulary.

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  8. What have I been doing today? Working, thinking, playing, existing! Sometimes, Adam, just sometimes, life is just for living. Death is not a temporary state of affairs. :-))

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  10. If at the end I can sing Non, je ne regrette rien then I will no my life has had purpose. :-)

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  13. All lives end in death, that's true, but I don't agree that all careers end in failure.

    When I say to the Moment flying;
    'Linger a while -- thou art so fair!'
    Then bind me in thy bonds undying,
    And my final ruin I will bear!

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  16. Yes, I'm sure we could enter the hazards, quote for quote, poem for poem, but our positions are taken and the point made!

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  18. very interesting, ana. what a wise/mischievous choice!

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  20. Adam, surely you must have realised by now that I am never wrong; arrogant, yes, opinionated, yes, as vain as all hell, yes, but never, ever wrong. :-))

    Forgive me, this is fun, but I simply must catch up with my mail!

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  23. Adam, that is the core of my philosophy. I'll try and locate the quiz that supposedly tells one the thinker that one most resembles. If I do I'll see if it's possible to post on my Facebook page. I'm sure the result will not surprise you. :-)

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  25. You would of had a very emotional overwhelming attraction to Egyptian culture since you were old enough to remember.

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  26. Maybe you're the Grand Duchess reincarnated Ana! I've sometimes thought I was a gray wolf in my last life.

    @MGON: Also "Harold" is Old Norse, and I think there may be a handful of other norse names as well though most of them (like Inga) are less common.

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  27. Anthony, I can't claim to any consistency here!

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  28. Jeremy, there is nothing 'gray' about you. :-)

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  29. @ MGON: For a self proclaimed atheist you call on God quite often ?

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  30. @ Ana: You mentioned Cleopatra in jest I persume but past life memories are stronger in some than in others.

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  31. Ana
    Perhaps you are aware of an 'Anastasia House' in Cambridge? It is directly opposite Anglia Ruskin. Each time I drive by it I smile and think of you, wondering if you are somewhere around on your 'blue' bike. (There are a few trendy places nearby).

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  32. Reference to trendy places nearby of course denotes the possibility of you being in the vicinity!

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  34. Shermeen, oh, yes, I know Anastasia House alright; I know it, and the trendy places nearby, very well indeed. :-)

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  35. Rehan, I would hate to dissolution him. We all need some romance in life. :-)

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