Ilia

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Elias in BR Brazil, AR Argentina, US United States and 13 more, Илья in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan, FI Finland and 1 more, Ilyas in TR Türkiye and Ілля in UA Ukraine.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin

No verified etymology recorded for this name yet — the entries below are drawn from usage statistics and the name graph.

Attested across 18 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Ilia is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name24K records spelled Ilia8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Chile, Brazil, United States, Venezuela

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Ília, Ilià, Iliá, Ìlia, Ilía

• Romanian given name8.2K records spelled Ilia2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Moldova, United States, Romania, Russia

  Also written Ìļía

• a separate given name1.9K records spelled Ilia11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Russia, United Kingdom, Canada

  Also written Il'Ia, Ília, Ilïa, Iliá, Il'I︠a︡

• Norwegian Bokmål given name726 records spelled Ilia7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, Denmark, United States, Iceland

  Languages: Norwegian Bokmål, Danish, Swedish

  Also written Iliã, Ilía

• Russian given name296 records spelled Ilia55 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Bulgaria, Croatia

  Languages: Russian, Croatian, Bulgarian

  Also written Элида, Elis, Elida, Елида, Елис

49 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Ilia is also recorded in 6 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Russian, var of Il'ia.

  as a word·A Dictionary of Period Russian Names (Wickenden / Goldschmidt 1996)

• In French, A transliteration of the Russian male given name Илья́ (Ilʹjá), equivalent to Ilya

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Latin, nominative/accusative/vocative plural of īle

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In min, downstream area

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, plural of ilium

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Esperanto, Their, theirs

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

CL SRCEI — Nombres más comunes (guaguas, 1920–2021) — 98 years between 1920–2021. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Ilya Ulyanovb. 1831RUnot in their usual nameRussian teacher, father of Vladimir Lenin (1831-1886)
• Ilia Chavchavadzeb. 1837GEGeorgian public figure and writer; a saint of Georgian Orthodox Church (1837-1907)
• Ilia Repinb. 1844UARussian-empire painter of Ukrainian birth (1844-1930)
• Élie Metchnikoffb. 1845FRnot in their usual nameRussian-French immunologist, embryologist, biologist
• Ilya Ehrenburgb. 1891UAnot in their usual nameSoviet writer, Bolshevik revolutionary, journalist and historian (1891–1967)
• Ilya Frankb. 1908RUnot in their usual nameSoviet physicist
• Ilya Prigogineb. 1917BEnot in their usual nameRussian-Belgian physical chemist (1917–2003)
• Iliab. 1933GEbishop
• Ilya Oleynikovb. 1947RUnot in their usual nameSoviet and Russian comic actor and television personality (1947-2012)
• Elya Baskinb. 1950USnot in their usual nameRussian actor

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 615 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Ilia?

We estimate roughly 461 thousand people bear Ilia (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Ilia have the most bearers?

Ilia is most frequently recorded in Russia, where it is most often spelled илья.

Where is Ilia most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Ilia is densest in Finland — about 1 in 188 people — even though Russia holds more of our records for it.

How common is Ilia compared with other names?

In Russia, Ilia is the 50th most common given name of 418,751 given names recorded there.

Is Ilia a male or female name?

Ilia is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.