BibTex, non-ascii initials and nameptr f [duplicate]

Question

I have a problem with BibTex – many citation styles use nameptr f. to show just the initial of author's first name. I have trouble using this if the name starts with a non-ascii character. BibTex produces some insane character such as Å and I get an inputenc error.

My guess is that BibTex, being unaware of non-ascii characters, probably just takes the first byte from the name regardless of whether the initial is actually a multi-byte character.

In any case – does anybody know of a solution other than switching to BibLatex?

Note also that using markup such as \v{S} in place of Š does not help – that only results in v. being listed as author's initial.

An MWE:

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\begin{document}

\cite{cube}

\bibliographystyle{apalike}
\bibliography{bibliography}

\end{document}

And an MWE bib file:

@Book{cube,
  Title                    = {Matematika ZD\v{S} v kocke},
  Author                   = {Novovesk\'{y}, Š. and Le\v{c}ko, I.
                              and Kri\v{z}alkovi\v{c}, K.},
  Publisher                = {Bratislava/SPN},
  Year                     = {1972}
}

As I mentioned, you may try to use \v{S}, which compiles, but also does not work properly:

@Book{cube,
  Title                    = {Matematika ZD\v{S} v kocke},
  Author                   = {Novovesk\'{y}, \v{S}. and Le\v{c}ko, I.
                              and Kri\v{z}alkovi\v{c}, K.},
  Publisher                = {Bratislava/SPN},
  Year                     = {1972}
}

Answer 1

With many thanks to Joseph Wright I will conclude this:

All that was actually required were additional braces around \v{S}. Using {\v{S}} everything works as expected.

To be precise, the bib file now reads as follows:

@Book{cube,
  Title                    = {Matematika ZD{\v{S}} v kocke},
  Author                   = {Novovesk{\'{y}}, {\v{S}}. and Le{\v{c}}ko, I.
                              and Kri{\v{z}}alkovi{\v{c}}, K.},
  Publisher                = {Bratislava/SPN},
  Year                     = {1972}
}

Thank you all for help!