Wasn't the family name Romanoff, or was that an Anglicazation? And if it's
Romanov, being female, wouldn't she be Romanova?

And you only change the ov to ova with a true patronymic rather than a
family name, I think.  (If it is meaning daughter of so and so, rather
than a patronymic turned into a long term family name).  But my knowlege
of russian linguistics being highly fuzzy...

Linguistically, Russian 'family names' are adjectives. The suffixes "-ski"
and "-ov" are adjective endinds, and in Russian, you would decline a name
in the Accusitive case as you would an adjective in that case. Thus, family
names will take feminine endings when used with feminine names, and the
feminine nominative of "-ski" adjectives is "-skya" and the feminine
nominative of "-ov" adjectives is "-va", so "Romanova" would be right.

Ie, "Romanov" and "Romanova" are the same damn name.

(Yes, I know... this would tip your hand about Nene's ancestors a bit too
early?)

That too.

Unfortunately, that's the way the cookie crumbles.


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