medved' and kul't lichnosti

[Leslie Farmer]

Re question #1: I'm not an expert on Slavic folklore, but analogous folk
beliefs are so common around the world that I'll send you a bottle (mini
bottle) of Becherovka if someone proves it WRONG.

(Oddly enough a Christian-era ballad--Scottish I think, can be found in
Childe--advances the opposite superstition: that to name something (the
Devil) is to render it powerless:)

And as soone as she the Feend did name
He flew away in a blazing flame.