Ilya

Ilya is the Russian form of Elijah, ultimately from a Hebrew name meaning “Yahweh is my God.” The final a belongs to this established masculine form in Russian; it does not make Ilya a feminine adaptation of Elijah. Ilia is another familiar Roman-letter rendering within the same broader name family.

A substantial literary association is Ilya Ilyich Oblomov, the central character of Ivan Goncharov’s novel Oblomov. The character’s name illustrates Russian naming practice, pairing a given name with a patronymic derived from his father’s name. For a family honoring an Elijah while maintaining a Russian connection, Ilya is a genuine language equivalent. It carries both the older biblical history and a distinct identity formed through Russian literature and everyday use.