Oleg

This article is about the given name Oleg. For the Balinese dance form, see Oleg (dance).
For the ships of the Imperial Russian Navy, see Oleg (ship).
Oleg

Gender Male
Origin
Word/name Old Norse
Meaning Holy
Region of origin Eastern Europe
Other names
Related names Olga, Helge

Oleg (Russian: Олег), Oleh (Ukrainian: Олег), or Aleh (Belarusian: Алег) is a Slavic given name. It derives from the Old Norse Helgi (Helge), meaning "holy", "sacred", or "blessed". The feminine equivalent is Olga.

Russian Pronunciation

Russian pronunciation of Oleg in English is based on the transliteration of the Cyrillic alphabet, and hides three combined quirks of spoken (as opposed to written) Russian:

  1. The stress is on the second syllable. In spoken Russian, the initial short unstressed 'O' is pronounced 'A' as in 'about', like 'Al-ég': however...
  2. Written Russian 'e' is pronounced 'ye' as in 'yeti', like 'Al-yég': however...
  3. A written final 'г' (hard g as in 'gun') is pronounced 'k', with the correct result 'Al-yék'.

Thus, rather than 'Oh-leg', the proper pronunciation of Oleg in English most closely resembles the name Alec. But you should be careful since such pronunciation is valid only when you are referring to Russian guys with the name 'Oleg'.

Ukrainian Pronunciation

Ukrainian pronunciation of the name Олег is different from Russian, though the same Cyrillic letters are used in writing. Ukrainian Олег becomes Oleh in English according to the transliteration rules and the name is pronounced as |ɔːlˈeh| (with unstressed |ɔːl| and stressed |ˈe|, like in already and |h| like in help).

People named Oleg

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