She said that they called her “Janina Kowalski”.
Ignoring the fact that I’ve never seen a woman named Janina in my entire life (Jan is the most popular male name, so they took that, but actually, Anna is the most generic female name), the surname “Kowalski” (it means Smith) is a male variant.
It changes according to gender, so a Polish person would call her “Kowalska”. Calling a woman “Kowalski” makes absolutely no sense for us, as it’s simply incorrect.
I’ve known a few Janinas, none of them Polish.
As for gender based surname variants, that’s not a thing in many parts of the world. I’ve known many kowalskis, never met a kowalska. So it seems people just stick with the Male version, at least in North America
I expect trying to do otherwise would just completely confuse every government beuarocrat that you ever need to deal with.
I know you don’t do it in US, but she did say she was in a hospital in Poland.
I don’t mind, it’s a tiny little detail, and it does make sense for the English speaking readers, just thought I’d point that out.
Welp, i guess they dont care mutch about it or just didnt know that.
A short post edit should correct things if this is in fact true. I know many languages have masculine and feminine forms.
I didn’t know Ana mentioned that she was in a hospital in Poland, but I’m pretty sure that she can’t speak Polish, so “Kowalski” variant made her more credible.
Well I’m not surprised they got it wrong, my head is stuffed full of useless knowledge, and I wasn’t aware of the Polish surnames being different for each gender.
Usually Americans with a European name (Favre, Gronkowski) will completely Americanize it (i.e. completely butcher its pronunciation and ignore any sort of conjugation if any).
Given Ana’s accent though, it seems they made an oopsy.
Rockstar did the same thing with Niko Bellic. They could have asked anyone from the Balkans to just look at the name before going with it since it’s also incorrect.
man, Blizzard could have made one of the craters on the moon part of Horizon Lunar colony look 3/8" higher than it is on the real moon, and there’d be someone here to point out their mistake
"“Ever since I left the hospital in Poland.” Ana watched as
Jack sipped his tea.
He made a face at the bitterness. “Any sugar?”
Ana ignored him. “When I woke up, I didn’t remember who
I was. I had no name to give them, so they called me, ‘Janina
Kowalski,’ your Jane Doe. "
They, Polish doctors, wouldn’t call her that, that’s why I made the post.
As I said, I really don’t mind, just thought it would be worth pointing it out.
It’s not a strictly generic Polish name. Ana, Anna or Anne are very common names in multiple countries.
I know, but Anna Kowalska is more or less our equivalent of Jane Doe, while Jan Kowalski is our John Doe.
I checked out the graphics with her name and it’s “Janina Kowalska”. They got it right.
Blizzard were obviously confused by Emily Ratajkowski’s surname and decided ending in -a is optional. ![:wink:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/wink.png?v=6" ":wink:")
I have the pdf open right now, downloaded a second ago, and it says Kowalski.
It does say Kowalska in the translated version, but that was to be expected.
The “Americanizing” of names wasn’t always by choice of the immigrant but sometimes the people processing them like mine which was OK though since by the time the World Wars came around having a very German sounding name wasn’t always safe.
I’m not implying it’s some sort of willful ignorance, but down the generations that is the result.
Writers messing up the names while trying to be authentic though is preventable with a little bit of research.
Ana isn’t polish. What’s stopping her from butchering the pronounciation of her own polish name?
Sorry I wasn’t implying anything negative at you I was just putting that out there for those that might not know about it. I’m sorry if it came across negative.
Not at all, thanks for the perspective!