This is a good thought! You see, I have grown with the folk-stories about Nikita-the-warrior-guy, so when I hear the name Nikita I usually imagine 6+ft tall, blond, muscly guy., rescuing maidens from dragons and all such things ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_the_Furrier ). Many Russian male names end on "a", though - Danila, Slava, etc.

I LOVED the old series too. I will try to dig out the pictures of Michael in leggins. They were great.