Ilya, Iliya, Ilia, Ilja, or Ilija (, , or , ; , ; ) is the East Slavic form of the male Hebrew name Eliyahu (Eliahu), meaning "My God is Yahu/Jah." It comes from the Byzantine Greek pronunciation of the vocative (Ilía) of the Greek Elias (Ηλίας, Ilías). It is pronounced with stress on the second syllable. The diminutive form is Iliusha or Iliushen'ka. The Russian patronymic for a son of Ilya is "Ilyich", and a daughter is "Ilyinichna". People with the name Real people Ilya (Archbishop of Novgorod), 12th-century Russian Orthodox cleric and saint Ilya Ivanovitch Alekseyev (1772–1830), commander of the Russian Imperial Army Ilya Borok (born 1993), Russian jiujitsu fighter Ilya Bryzgalov (born 1980), Russian ice hockey goalie Ilya Ehrenburg (1891–1967), Russian writer and Soviet cultural ambassador Ilya Glazunov (1930–2017), Russian painter Ilya Gringolts (born 1982), violinist Ilya Grubert (born 1954), violinist Ilya Ilf (1897–1937), Russian author of Twelve Chairs and the Golden Calf Ilya Ilyin (born 1988), Kazakhstani Olympic weightlifter Ilya Ivashka (born 1994), Belarusian tennis player Ilya Kabakov (born 1933), Russian-American conceptual artist of Jewish origin Ilya Kaler (born 1963), violinist Ilya Kaminsky (born 1977), Ukrainian-American-Jewish poet Ilya Kovalchuk (born 1983), Russian ice hockey winger in the KHL and formerly the NHL for the Atlanta Thrashers, New Jersey Devils, L.A. Kings and Washington Capitals Ilya Kuvshinov (born 1990), animator Ilya Lagutenko (born 1968), lead singer of the Russian rock band Mumiy Troll Ilya Lobanov (born 1996), Kazakhstani ice hockey player Ilya Espino de Marotta, Marine engineer and leader of the Panama Canal Expansion Project Ilya Mechnikov (1845–1916), Russian Nobel Prize-winning microbiologist Ilya Petrov (born 1995), Russian footballer Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003), physical chemist and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ilya Piatetski-Shapiro (1929–2009), Russian-Jewish-Israeli mathematician Ilya Yashin (born 1983), Russian political figure Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844–1930), Russian painter Ilya Salkind (born 1947), movie producer Ilya Salmanzadeh (born 1986), Persian-Swedish music producer Ilya Samsonov (born 1997), a Russian goaltender for the Washington Capitals Ilya Sorokin (born 1995), a Russian goaltender for the New York Islanders Ilya Strebulaev, Russian-American financial economist Ilya Sutskever, computer scientist Ilya Tsipursky (1934–2022), Soviet judoka and sambist Ilya Ulyanov (1831–1886), father of Soviet revolutionary Vladimir Lenin Ilya Zhitomirskiy (1989–2011), Russian-American founder of Diaspora Ilya Serov (born 1986), Russian-American trumpeter and singer Ilya Dzhirkvelov (born 1927), author and KGB defector Religious figures Ilya Muromets, Orthodox monastic saint, Russian folk hero Elijah, a Hebrew prophet of the ninth century