>>>>Now a puzzler for weekend etymologists (Russophones, no spoilers, please): what anglophone nickname corresponds to Fedya?
>>>
>>>In highschool Russian we covered names and nicknames, but that one escapes me (not to mention highschool Russian was 31 years ago) :o)
>>
>>Hint: Dostoyevsky.
>
>Teddy?

Yep. The trick is to know that the Greek theta translates into T in most of the phonetic toolsets, even where there's a th in it - so it's not Theddy, it's Teddy, but in Russian it translates into F. So the capital of Greece is Athens here, Atina in Serbian but Afiny in Russian. And Theodor translated into Fyodor - we, Macedonians and Bulgarians have a Todor (nickname Toša, Tošo, Toše), and I think Romanians do as well - there's a surname Todorescu.