>>>>You still alive? :)
>>>
>>>Gragan,
>>>
>>>You sure know Russian names very well. You outed me. Now I feel like Valery Plain <g>.
>>
>>Val Aeroplane?
>>
>>...uh... coffee should have kicked in by now. Any minute now.
>>
>>Hi, Mitya :)
>>
>>Though, in Russian Mitya is for Dimitriy, in Serbian Mića, while still a regular nickname for any Dimitrije, Dmitar or Mitar (all from the same root), more often comes from Miroslav, Miloslav, Miroljub, Miodrag and any of such dear- (Mio-) or peace- (mir-) names. Dimitrije can rather be shortened to Mita, Mitke or, in Macedonia, Dimče (though "dim" means smoke, so "dimče" is a puff :).
>
>You are right that Mitya is one of the choices of nick names for Dmitry but more common is Dima. All of my family and friends call me Dima. The only person who called me Mitya was my late uncle.
>
>Interesting that when I meet someone from Greece and they learn that my name is Dmitry they often times call me James. Somehow Dmitry and James have the same root <g>.

The name James is still a mystery to me... it's not the same as John and not the same as Jacob, but somehow seems to be related to one of them - exactly where I lose track of etymologies, can't even know which one. But it being related to Demetrios, now that's a first.

Now a puzzler for weekend etymologists (Russophones, no spoilers, please): what anglophone nickname corresponds to Fedya?