Gender | male |
---|---|
Word/name | Russian-language or alternatively Kurdish |
Meaning | "My god is He" (Hebrew meaning) or "great or glorious" (Kurdish meaning) |
Related names | Elijah, Ilija, Ilya, Iliya, Ilja, Ilyusha, Ilyushenka, Ilyich, Ilyinichna, Ali or Ilia |
Ilya, Illya, Iliya, Ilja, Ilija, or Ilia (Cyrillic: Илья or Илия) is the East Slavic form of the male Hebrew name Eliyahu (Elijah), meaning "My god is He". It comes from the Byzantine Greek pronunciation of the vocative (Elia) of the Greek Elias (Ηλίας). 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 "", and a daughter is "Ilyinichna".
(There is a quote from Imam Ali "I am called Elya / Alya among Jews, Elia among Christians, Ali for my father, and Haydar for my mother"),