#baby anya (or is it ania?)

[alexiethymia]

my favorite twilight is the one who can’t help but go gooey over his family😫

[books4evermorr]

I genuinely think this is an anagram that she might have seen somewhere near her and took it as her name (don’t talk to me I am sobbing)

Cause like it’s Project Apple yk? So it could be : Apple N___ 1-A , like successful experiment 1-A but she mistook it as IA

[whateversawesome]

Some Theories about Anya's Name

Who would have thought a short chapter would bring so much information and discussion? But then again, we're talking about Anya, agent of chaos (according to her papa).

After that chapter, there's plenty of theories flying around, so I decided to make this post to compile, explain and expand these theories 😉

Ready?

Anya is an acronym: This one is pretty clear has been a popular general theory. It means that the letters of her name stand for something else. What exactly? We don't know yet, but it probably has to do with Project Apple and the infamous lab Anya was created.

Anya...Ania...OstANIA: If you live near small children, you probably know that when they are learning how to talk, they do it by picking up words adults say and many times they say those words wrong. While discussing with some friends, I imagined those scientists constantly saying the word Ostania in front of that little girl. Maybe baby Anya thought that was her name because she heard the word OstANIA all the time, but she couldn't say it right.

Anya, the foreign princess: This one is very simple. It means that her name was spelled differently in her country of origin. This theory is vague, but I do believe a third country could be involved in all this mess. Also, it would make sense for Anya to be hiding in Ostania, if she was born and kept captive in a different country.

Anya...A N/A: This one is one of the most interesting theories! A N/A would mean something like "Non-applicable". You probably think this doesn't say much, but it really does. In the first few chapters of the story we learned that Anya was adopted and returned 4 times. Instead of a child, she was returned as if she was a piece of clothing. Even though it's been barely mentioned, we've also learned that people that participated in Project Apple didn't treat the subjects nicely (see how they treated Bond). Those people called Anya "subject 007". They didn't even give her a name. If we think about it, Anya is very "non-applicable". She was created in a lab, she has a strange power, so she's not like the other kids, she's been adopted and returned 4 times...

The A N/A and Anya being treated like an object instead of a human being fits the Spy x Family premise of the story, which is: Humans like Twilight, Yor, and Anya are used as weapons instead of being treated like humans. The story is about them regaining their humanity through love and family.

So even if A N/A says nothing about Anya, it says a lot about the story.

Look at this little girl. This illustration was heartbreaking. Do you know when it takes place? It's right before he meets Twilight. We see that it's the same filthy orphanage Twilight visited on chapter 1 and this is not Anya's first orphanage, so that means this illustration happened after she was returned again. The way she's facing the door, her body language, the way she holds Mr. Chimera by the hand is so sad. Here she is, once again, in a place she doesn't want to be, where nobody will take care of her...alone 😭

Enough of that or we'll end up crying...🤧

Some other things to take into consideration about her name:

Mr. Chimera: Since this is a visual story, that panel of Mr. Chimera tells us that this plushie is involved in Anya's name. If you've read certain fic, you know where I stand on that. In this case, I think that yes, the person who helped Anya escape gave Mr. Chimera to her. However, I don't think it was exactly that character (you know who). It probably was someone else, maybe even a new character we don't know yet. It could also be a scientist who took pity on Anya or disagreed with the use of children as lab rats, and helped her escape. We don't know yet.

Twilight: One of the most beautiful panels on that short chapter was seeing Anya's eyes lit up when her papa told her the correct spelling of her name. Did you see it? Those were the eyes of someone who had just learned something new about herself and by doing this, Twilight made her even more human.

One more thing...I've seen speculations about the next arc of the manga being about Anya's past because of this short mission. In my opinion...I don't think it'll happen yet. Why? If it was the case, this would have been a longer chapter and the actual beginning of the arc.

I believe Anya's past will be one of the last things we learn, because there's plenty of things to resolve and a lot of information we don't have. Stories are like puzzles; this chapter was an important piece, but we're not working on that part yet.

[xxscarletxrosexx]

A Linguistic Analysis of the Spelling Names "Ania" and "Anya" (and the chapter and languages of Ostania)

This includes spoilers from Short Mission 11, or Chapter 90.1

It's not a secret that Anya's (Ania) name change was officialized along with Loid (Lloyd) and Yor (Yoru/Yolanda) in July 2019. I do recall that our loveable Forger family had different spellings in the early manga releases. Many believed that it was Endo-san's way to cover up the spelling mistake, but I believe that, whether or not the origin and/or intention was a mistake, it paved a beautiful opportunity for a deep dive into linguistics and character analysis on Anya Forger.

First, I'd like to address my thoughts on "ANIA" as the spelling. Here are a few of my impressions on this:

"ANIA" could be perceived as her original spelling because wherever she came from used this spelling.

"ANIA" could just be her limitation as a child when it came to spelling her name.

"ANIA" could be an acronym from her lab that probably served the purpose of her existence.

"ANIA" could be the name of her mother/creator. And she was subjected to share the same name of her creator for "sourcing" purposes.

"ANIA" when applied to numerology number, reinforced her code name which is 007 (which is super meta to me, but probably is a coincidence because we all know 007 was Endo's way of referencing James Bond). S/O to @momentocollector for sharing this!

Second, I'd like to address "ANIA" as an identity for our precious baby girl.

"Ania" is the chosen spelling. This could possibly mean that this is her real name and how it should be spelled (You, as the owner of your name have every right to decide what your name should be, spelled, or pronounced after all).

"Ania" could possibly be an influence of either her mother-tongue language's spelling.

"Ania" could possibly be due to her limitation of spelling. (I don't think she is aware of how her name should be spelled.)

Recall that Yor carved out Anya's name as "Ania" and didn't question it. This could be a reflection of Yor's own lack of familiarity of Ostanian orthography since she is academically limited, and she would have listened to how Anya would have wanted her name to be spelled. Furthermore, this tells me that Yor's absence of questioning reflects that she accepts her daughter no matter who she is, be it "Ania" or "Anya".

Third, I'd like to address "ANYA" as her name's spelling.

"A-N-Y-A" is the spelling that her papa gave her, which tells her that she can now be on the same playing field as her parents. Their names and titles are all "masks" in this masquerade that they call "Forger". So, to little Anya, it means that she finally belongs with someone. Anya has essentially found "her home".

We also know that Franky did do a lot of paperwork and found that "Anya" is the spelling that was written down on her adoption papers. This reinforces that "Anya" is the standard Ostanian orthography of her name.

I perceive Loid as a person replicating the "average Ostanian" (since this is a deep cover mission after all), so to also tell her that her name is spelled a certain way reinforces that she has a new identity as an "Ostanian child". (I find this quite ironically poetic because it's a "fake man" giving a "fake name" to his "fake daughter").

I also see that when Anya's eyes light up, it could also mean that this new identity in her spelling change meant she was finally liberated from her days as a lab experiment and living in an orphanage.

Fourth, I'd like to address spelling etymology.

Since I'm not a Japanese linguist expert, I found @connoisseursdecomfort post to be quite educational when it came to Japanese spelling.

What we learn from the above post is that "Ania" is an acceptable name spelling in "Old Japanese". But as time progressed, the spelling changed to "Anya" which is the modern-day spelling of this name (this may tie into Anya's character lore).

We can track "i" becomes "y" in the evolution of the alphabet from Phoenician (c. 1000 BC) to Archaeic Greek (c. 750 BC). S/O to @rachellysebrook for this link. (Again, what this reinforces is Anya's background with an unidentified mother country/mother tongue language).

Another thing is that Yor Forger did not react to the spelling of "Ania". It could possibly be that she recognized Anya's limitation, given that her daughter already had poor scores since her admission.

We also learned that Yor, a real Ostanian, seems to be limited with Ostanian orthography which is most likely due to her dropping out of school to take care of Yuri (fake Ostanian /j). From her interaction with Anya, off-screen, it appears that Yor seems indifferent to spelling standards of names (Which is nice! She is subtly against society's norm and I love her for that). Had she been aware of the spelling, she would have been the one to ask instead of Loid. (But again, it must be Loid because it's poetic and has a much more meaningful interaction between "Loid" and "Anya").

Fifth, I'd like to address the name's (possible) impact on character purpose in the story.

"Anya" means mother in Hungarian (S/O to @httplovecraft1890. This inspired my thoughts on "Ania" as a name in the lab). Could this possibly be an inspiration or coincidence? It could be a stretch, but perhaps Anya's purpose in the lab is that she's a "mother weapon" for war.

"Ania" means "gracious" and "merciful" according to Google. Which makes me think that the lab scientists went with this name because it would represent her purpose as a weapon of war. Perhaps Ania becomes the "truth serum" and could be seen as the "angel of death" because she knows the war captor's thoughts and inevitably they are executed (a possible headcanon).

Sixth, I'd like to discuss the factors of the mysterious "unidentified language".

Anya did use "oui" in the anime when Loid had adopted her. This automatically made me think her possible origins could be French, but it could also take another step back in the language family: Romance. What makes this work is that we treat "Classical Language" as a dead language based on what we read/saw in the manga/anime like Latin. Anya has an innate potential to be bi-/multilingual.

Bonus: Seventh, I'd like to talk about the languages in this anime (This is a bit of a ramble but since we're talking about linguistics, I thought why not)...

Based on the dialogues spoken in the anime, we can confirm that English exclamatory (Oh my God, Goddammit, Shit, Wow, Elegant, etc.) and the Japanese language are the main components of the Ostanian language. This is reinforced by many characters who have used English expressions (Loid, Yuri, Yor, Anya, Damian, Henderson, etc.)

What does bug me is whether or not "oui", a French exclamatory, should be categorized as part of the Ostanian language or if that should be categorized for Anya's hidden lore. The reason is that when Loid/Twilight heard Anya say "oui" in front of him, he did not question it. (Perhaps he was too tired to process this, or he excused it as something Anya could have seen on TV and is merely mimicking. I really don't think Twilight would be the type to excuse this realization had he not had the aforementioned state of mind). I'm leaning more towards the latter as this is from Anya's mother tongue language.

In conclusion (or tldr;): "Ania" may be her real name, but "Anya" is her new identity as part of the Forgers.

If you read everything, thank you for your time! The linguist in me is so happy that Endo-san is steeping his foot into linguistic territory. As short as this chapter was, it said A LOT to me linguistically and provided more details to the scraps of lore that we know of Anya but it also tells us a bit more about Yor, Loid/Twilight, and Ostania.

[shiuefha]

So I have some theories regarding the recent chapters of Spy × Family, especially about Anya.

In chapter 88, it was Melinda who tried to get the crunchy tea cakes so Damian could give it to Anya. Then, there was also an explanation about the cake's history, so... Melinda probably knows about Anya's biological family, which perhaps is an important family.

In chapter 89, there are some flashback scenes about Yuri in the university. The chapter itself isn't about Anya at all, but I wonder if the university itself is the one where Sigmund Authen used to work, hmm 🤔

In chapter 90, Sigmund and Barbara Authen were just recently moved to the same apartment building where the Forgers lived, next to their apartment unit. I don't know why, but when I saw them in the chapter it makes me wonder if they were actually an important family, who used to have a granddaughter, who was kidnapped when she was still a baby. Unfortunately, they couldn't find their granddaughter, but there was an important item which could lead them to her (in other words, if they see someone possesses the item, they'll be sure that the certain someone is their granddaughter).

In short mission 11, it was simply focused on Anya's name spelling and her chimera plushie. Now I wonder if someone else will notice the way Anya spelled her own name as ANIA or her chimera plushie, and that certain someone is one of her biological relatives... This will be dramatic.

Now, you probably notice that the last two points above might be connected, and yeah, I suspect that Sigmund and Barbara Authen are Anya's biological grandparents.

So, Sigmund Authen was a professor, and some readers suspected him to be involved in Anya's experiment, but what if he actually wasn't? What if the one who was involved in the experiment was his acquaintance instead? It's probably his colleague or his junior, but not himself. The said acquaintance told him about the experiment's plan, which he disagreed with, so that acquaintance got mad at him and decided to kidnap his granddaughter, then used her in the experiment.

However, it's just my own theory about this, partly because of the contrary meaning between Forger (fake) and Authen (authentic/real). I silently hope that at the end, when Operation Strix is over, Sigmund and Barbara Authen would 'adopt' Loid and Yor in their family because of their care towards Anya, and all of them will be a happy family.

[pocketramblr]

If you're still doing the ask game, how about this: AU where the higher ups of W.I.S.E was behind Anya getting experimented on?

Oh they're so dead when Anya's parents find out...

1- as you might have heard, W.I.S.E. is a bit understaffed at the moment, so once again Agent Twilight is called in for another task he probably shouldn't be doing. He definitely shouldn't be doing, actually, because cleaning out the documentation of the missions is half intern work and half only-the-top-brass work, and he is neither. Yet, there he is, pulling files and folders and stacking them up to shred and burn.

2- Agent Twilight would never look in the files he isn't supposed to. He more than understands the idea of what people don't need to know. However, he is allowed to take some folders related to his mission, and as he's reading through, memorizing as he goes, another agent who probably shouldn't be cleaning out the room bumps into him and knocks some files to the ground. Agent Twilight shoes them away and picks it up without intending to read- until he sees the picture of a tiny girl with pink hair, labeled "Anastasia" with a red "defunct" stamp covering the middle of her name

3- Agent Twilight is aware of the cameras on him, and that he is not allowed to read those files, and that whoever he takes them to who checks them off and shreds them won't either. He puts the documents back in a file and keeps moving. When he hands his stack over to be destroyed, the documents on his mission he already memorized were switched with the others, and no one notices anything. He continues to read the files on Ania and then other experiments (Belladonna, Clausa, Daniella, etc), and he destroys the documents as soon as they're memorized. His head is a whirl of thoughts, thinking how Anya is, apparently, supposed to be able to read minds, but his the little girl can't do that, surely, it's impossible, the experiments must have failed, but what did they do to her to try to change her, is this why she sees so flighty and behind her age of six, did they hurt her- he only started doing this for more information, for better lives for children than he had, but his own team that he gave his loyalty to have been using children, hurting children-

He walks through the door of the house and Anya says "Papa's home! Papa, today Anya- Papa? Are you ok? Anya's ok, no one hurt me, what's wrong?"

4- Yor looks up and frowns too, because Loid's expression is not a good one as her fake but also real husband realizes that his fake real daughter can, in fact, actually read minds. Anya's eyes go wide because she's been caught and she quickly tugs him by the arm back out of the apartment, calling that she's going to cheer Papa up by showing him the leaves outside and Mama should stay there and wait. Then, Anya asks if he's going to send her back because she can read minds, or because she knows about the mission, panic growing as Loid tries to calm her, wondering how W.I.S.E could have done this to her, he was willing to use a child in a mission but not like this, not discard her after - but Anya has already caught on that detail. "Papa's boss worked with Anya when I was a baby?" She asks, and the hysterics are gone. Instead, she's excited. "So I can keep working on the mission? Can I work more, with Papa? Like at the castle?"

Loid stares at her. That was not the reaction he was expecting. "No, you can't. I... Am going to make dinner." And for the rest of the night, his thoughts are too confusing for Anya to read.

5- so, eventually, Anya decides she must go to her mother too. She slips into Yor's room as she's getting ready for bed. "Mama? Anya has to tell you something secret." She tells Yor that Loid just found out that her first mama, his first wife, was tested on while pregnant and Anya can read minds. Then she proves this by saying she knows about the Thorn Princess thing, but never told Papa because she's good at keeping secrets. But, her parents should probably talk about it. Anya goes to bed convinced she's just brought the world closer to peace and that Yor will inadvertently encourage Loid to let her help on more missions.

(In the next hour, Loid and Yor manage to both tell more truths and more lies than they have of either in the entire marriage before that. Yor is convinced that her husband is going to try to figure out the doctors that did this to his wife with his own connections (psychologist, after all!) and deal with it privately, though at that point Thorn Princess might have to secretly take care of that for him, while Loid is convinced that Yor will be able to take care of Anya if he gets discovered 'pruning' W.I.S.E's upper roles and doing what he can to get agents he's sure won't do human experiments at the top instead, because Agent Twilight doesn't want to threaten peace but he can't abide by this in it's stead. Both parents remain unaware that their dog can see the future.)

[cheapwitch]

I’m sorry I hit you! I wanna be friends!

[annalaurendet70]

Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov of Russia around Mogilev during WWl.

There were numerous correspondence between Alexei Nikolaevich (Mogiliev) and his Mother and Sisters back at Tsarskoe Selo.Fortunately for us,many have been saved.

The one below is from his second eldest sister,the Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova of Russia.

7 October 1915

Tsarskoye Selo

"My Dear Darling Aleksey,

Yesterday Mama read us all of you letters, which are written so well. I always tell P.V. that you write much better by yourself then with him.

I'm very happy to hear that you're enjoying yourself. I would love to see how you and Papa sleep, but when we mention it, Anya says that it's inappropriate. In the morning there was snow on all the roads, but it melted later. It is such a bore that winter will come soon. Do you play with Kol'ya? What is Joy up to? Ortino is very sweet and she greets you and Nagornii. I really would love to see you Little Darling. I didn't see your Irina, because she is in Petrograd, so I can't tell you what she is doing. Rita works in our hospital, so we see her everyday.

Well, good-bye Baby Darling. God protect you. Big hugs and kisses to you and Papa.

Your

Uhlan"

📌 Your Irina ~ Irina Mikhailovna Raevskaya 1892-1955. Maid-of-Honour

(Tolstaya by her 1st marriage and Countess Karlova by her second marriage) Daughter of Princess Maria Grigorjewna Gagarine and Michael Nikolajewitch Rajewsky

📌 Rita ~ Margarita Sergeevna Khitrovo

📌 P.V. ~ Professor Pyotr Vasilievich Petrov (Russian tutor)

📌 Nagornii ~ Klementy Grigorievich Nagorny (Junior Sailor-Nanny)

📌 Kolya ~ Nikolai Vladimirovich Derevenko (Dr Vladimir Nikolaevich Derevenko's son)

📌 Joy ~ Alexei's pet dog

📌 Ortino ~ Tatiana's pet dog

📌 Ania ~ Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova

📌 Uhlan ~ Tatiana's nickname.From her Regiment,the 8th Voznesensky Uhlans