Thérémine.

This is one of those utterly trivial issues that for some reason madden me to the point that I have to mutter in public about them. I was looking up Leon Theremin, inventor of the eponymous musical instrument, and wondering about his very un-Russian-sounding name Термен [Termen]; it turns out he was of French Huguenot descent, and the original family name was Theremin (pronounced, of course, /termen/). Then, unfortunately, I thought I’d look at his French Wikipedia page, where I learned that in French he is Léon Thérémine. Thérémine?! Why would you take a Russianized version of a good French surname and retroject it into a weird form like that?? Don’t worry, I don’t expect an answer, but if you’ve got one, of course I’ll be glad to hear it.

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