Russian names have MANY diminutive forms!
This is not only a feature of the Russian language, but also a social code, as such word forms can show one's attitude towards a particular person.
‘Alexander’ can be ‘Sasha’, ‘Sashenka’, ‘Sanya’, ‘Sanechka’ and ‘Shurik’. ‘Maria’ can be ‘Masha’, ‘Marusya’, ‘Mashenka’, ‘Manya’ and ‘Maryushka’.
The way one person calls another immediately reveals whether they are friends, respect each other or mildly despise each other.. It's like a subtle regulator of relationships and a national psychology expressed through suffixes.
Dialects from different regions of Russia have given the language a variety of forms that have become stylistic variants in the literary language.
