Talk:Véra Nabokov

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• Isn't she Nabokova? That would be the correct spelling of this russian surname for females. Or did she have man's name in her pasport too? :/ Lormus (talk) 20:18, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Given that she Anglicized her first name, and they married in Western Europe, it's unlikely that she ever used "Nabokova." However, I'll check Stacy Schiff's bio when I get and see if anything is mentioned about it.

Dybryd (talk) 22:07, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

What's the status with that check? VolodyA! V Anarhist User:Beta_M (converse) 09:27, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Nabokova or Nabokov?

While Nabokova may be the correct name in Russian, isn't she commonly called Véra Nabokov in English? Amis's book was Visiting Mrs Nabokov. Vladimir Nabokov was very insistent that the proper English title of Tolstoy's novel was Anna Karenin, not Anna Karenina. Do we know how Mrs N referred to herself? Did she sign letters "Nabokov" or "Nabokova"? Jean-de-Nivelle (talk) 12:30, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

To partially answer my own question, Stacy Schiff writes (Véra, p.219):

In the early 1950s those letters to which Véra did lend her signature as well as her voice went out from "Véra Nabokov" or from a more neutral "V. Nabokov." As Véra Nabokov she might write, for example, to ask if a publisher might consider adding a reprint edition of Bend Sinister to its list [...] By 1956, when she had begun a testy exchange with Maurice Girodias about perceived violations of the Lolita contract, she settled on a signature that seemed to correspond to her identity, or nonidentity. From these years, and just in time, emerged "Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov," who in her formal Old World script would sign "Véra Nabokov" above her married name, which she typed, in parentheses, as if to mute the potency of the alias.

The name "Nabokova" appears nowhere in Schiff's biography.

Jean-de-Nivelle (talk) 18:36, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 25 March 2024

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Bensci54 (talk) 16:53, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

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Véra Nabokova → Véra Nabokov – According to Stacy Schiff's biography Véra, Véra signed her name "Véra Nabokov", "V. Nabokov", or "Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov":

In the early 1950s those letters to which Véra did lend her signature as well as her voice went out from "Véra Nabokov" or from a more neutral "V. Nabokov." As Véra Nabokov she might write, for example, to ask if a publisher might consider adding a reprint edition of Bend Sinister to its list [...] By 1956, when she had begun a testy exchange with Maurice Girodias about perceived violations of the Lolita contract, she settled on a signature that seemed to correspond to her identity, or nonidentity. From these years, and just in time, emerged "Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov," who in her formal Old World script would sign "Véra Nabokov" above her married name, which she typed, in parentheses, as if to mute the potency of the alias.

— Stacy Schiff, Véra (1999)

The spelling "Nabokov" dominates in reliable English-language sources. Ngrams are very clear. Jean-de-Nivelle (talk) 18:03, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

Reluctantly Support. (Edited from Oppose) Cyrillic/Slavic Naming conventions have surname suffixes based from gender, in Russian this is most common with "ova" affixed to the end of the surname. This is a common Russian language practice that runs deep within the rules of the language, and "Vera Nabokova" is direct and accurate romanization of her name from her birth language. Her last name is Nabokova and while she may have signed Nabokov in English language on occasion due to being lingual inconsistency (Not knowing English language surname mannerisms), her last name does not change.

Edit: I sympathize with the nominator and recognize that the WP:COMMONNAME may in fact be Vera Nabokov as seen by a variety of internet sources claiming that to be her name. Be that as it may, I did not find sufficient enough evidence to reasonably be certain that she and her husband had explicit desire to rid themselves of Slavic Conventions, and the internet seems divided with different sources using differing versions of the last name. While this may be tied to Anglo-speaking misunderstanding regarding slavic surnames, it has become clear that Vera's case is unique and the present common name is in fact Vera Nabokov based on its higher prevalence and her use of it in her work.

- EVaDiSh (talk) 21:40, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

Support. @ User:EVaDiSh, but it does if she said it did. People get to choose their own names. Whatever name she may have used among the Russian fraternity is of no moment as far as English Wikipedia is concerned. In English-language contexts, she used Nabokov as per above, not Nabokova. Both she and her husband were very insistent that Russian feminine surname endings do NOT apply in English, eg. Karenin, not Karenina. It's the same deal with romanization preferences: Rachmaninoff could have written his name Rachmaninov, Rakhmaninov, Rakhmaninoff or whatever (and all these and other versions appear in the literature), but HE CHOSE "Sergei Rachmaninoff", and that's why our article is so titled. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 23:10, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

I was not aware she or her husband publicly declared the former spelling inaccurate, and if that is the case I cede!

EVaDiSh (talk) 04:27, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.