The many forms of Anastasia

The Russian name Anastasiya has long been my favouritest female name, though only with the proper Slavic pronunciation, Ah-nah-STAH-see-yah. The Anglo mangling Ann-a-STAY-zha is like nails on a chalkboard! This name has equivalents in a number of other languages, even if some people don’t think of it as particularly universal across the various Indo–European languages.

1. Anastasiya is Russian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, and Ukrainian, with the lovely nicknames Nastya, Stasya, and Asya. I honestly never saw Nastya as containing the English word “nasty” until it was pointed out many years after I’d learnt the nickname. It’s pronounced NAHST-yah, not Nas-tee-a! I actually found the nickname Asya stranger and more potentially rude in an Anglophone country at first.

2. Anastasie is French. This is the middle name of my character Justine Troy (later Ryan).

3. Anastasia is Greek, Italian, Spanish, and English. Greek nicknames are Tasoula, Tasia, and Natasa. The variation Anastàsia is Catalan, and Anastasía is Icelandic.

4. Anastasija is Serbian and Macedonian, with the nickname Staša.

5. Anastazija is Slovenian and Croatian. Slovenian nicknames are Nastja and Staša, and the Croatian nickname is Staša.

6. Anasztázia is Hungarian. Nicknames include Anci, Neszti, Tázi, Aszti, Sztázi, Sztáza, Anaszi, Nesztike, Anaszti, Anaszta, and Sztázus.

7. Anastázie is Czech, with the last two letters pronounced separately instead of as one. It can also be written without the accent mark.

8. Anastazja is Polish.

9. Anastázia is Slovak.

10. Anastácia is Portuguese.

11. Anastagia is an Italian variation, as well as Haitian Creole.

12. Anastase is Basque.

13. Annstás is Irish, with the nickname Stéise.

14. Naśtaśśi is Chuvash, a native Siberian language.

15. Naśtuś is also Chuvash.

16. Nashchtuk is a third Chuvash form.

17. Nasta is Mordvin, a Uralic language spoken in Russia.

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