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 · 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 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 pain