Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
Crazy example of Russians and their nicknames!
The girl is called Alexandra. How could her nickname be Marussi?
Marusya is short for Mariya (Маруся <- Мария), and indeed it has nothing to do with Alexandra. The girl was just acting out a little. When Gosha stayed unfazed, accepting this false "nickname", she made a vaguely snide remark about calling him "Vasya" then, which is also a diminutive for the "wrong" name - Vasily (Вася <- Василий).

And what is the deal with Shura, Goga, Gosha..... etc! His actual name is given as Georgi.
That's true, Zhora, Goga and Gosha (Жора/Гога/Гоша) are pretty common nicknames for Georgi/Giorgi. Yuri (Юрий)as a diminutive for Georgi is a bit crazy, I guess it was mentioned as an example of weird nicknames people give him.