Russian short names

[mixturaverborum.livejournal.com]

Why the short name of Vladimir is Vova/Volodia?
What is derivation rule?

10x
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Comments

[steppinrazor.livejournal.com]

Is there any other diminutive for Mikhail aside from Misha and Mishka?

[alon_68]

Actually, no.

[definite.livejournal.com]

In fact, there is Миха, which rather slangish.

[moon-aka-sun.livejournal.com]

Not exactly diminutive (I'm not sure) but there's also Миха (Mikha).
The same may exsist for other names:
Алексей - Лёша - Лёха (Alexey - Lesha - Lekha)
Сергей - Серёжа - Серёга (Sergey - Serezha - Serega)
etc.

[khathi.livejournal.com]

That are basic ones. You can apply various suffixes and get tons of others. ^_^ Mishka, for example, is already standard diminutive "Misha" with "-k-" suffix added.