Dashka Slater: Hello, my name is Dashka Slater. My name is a made up name, my father made it up. And it's also a Russian diminutive, or nickname, for the name Daria. Sometimes people call me Dash-ka, which isn't right, but I always thought that if I was going to have a personalized license plate for my car, it would be Dash-Car, since that's sometimes how people pronounce my name.