Ilya

Ilya, Iliya, Ilja, or Ilia is the Russian-language form of the male name Elijah, meaning "My god is He". It is pronounced with stress on the second syllable. The diminutive form is Ilyusha or Ilyushenka. The Russian patronymic for a son of Ilya is "Ilyich", and a daughter is "Ilyinichna".

Ilya is also a Kurdish name meaning great and glorious.

Famous namesakes

Mythical/biblical figures

• Ilya Muromets, Russian folk hero
• Elijah, a Hebrew prophet of the ninth century BC
• Elias, another name for the prophet Elijah (St Ilya in Russian)
• Ilya Kuryakin, a main character in the TV show "Man from U.N.C.L.E."

Real people

• Ilya Ilf, Russian author of Twelve Chairs and the Golden Calf
• Ilya Bryzgalov, ice hockey player
• Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
• Ilya Mechnikov, Nobel Prize-winning microbiologist
• Ilya Yefimovich Repin, Russian painter
• Ilya Ehrenburg, Russian writer and Soviet cultural ambassador
• Ilya Kovalchuk, ice hockey player
• Ilya Ulyanov, father of Soviet revolutionary Vladimir Lenin
• Ilya Tchaikovsky, father of composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
• Ilya Salkind, movie producer
• Ilya Kogan, Famous debt advisor
• Ilya Proplayer, godlike cryer diablo 2 player

Music

• Ilya (Bristol band), from Bristol
• Ilya (San Diego band)

Related

• Branch, in East African languages
• "There is" (il y a), in French