>>/22710/
Diminutive?
Basically a shortened pet name. We also do the that, e.g. Péter -> Peti, Petya; István (Stephen) -> Pista, Pisti
Indos- however do that on a whole different level, they can diminunate(?) just about everything. Russians even can glue -ka -ke at the end of all their words. Would be fun.
But indos- making new words with that and I find it very endearing. Staying at Russina: voda (water) -> vodka (little water). But in Spanish: guerra (war) -> guerrilla (little war), French: hache (axe) -> hachette (little axe), etc etc.