it'd be very amusing to make you bust out an IPA chart for this but na, I do get the picture

and I agree all around! I do pronounce naesala differently, but I know that the thing I'm doing in my head with his name is wrong and sinful. (it goes sorta like... NEI-SHA-la, with a sort of a double stress)

(I also read "nikolias" a bit more NI-ko-lee-as, but, well, I think that's just the more lusophonic reading as opposed to your anglophonic reading)