Alexey


Alexey is a Russian male given name derived from the Greek Aléxios, meaning "Defender", and thus of the same origin as the Latin Alexius.
Similar Ukrainian and Belarusian names are romanized as Oleksii and Aliaksiej, respectively.
The Russian Orthodox Church uses the ecclesiastical form, Alexiy or Aleksiy, for its Saints and hierarchs. The name became fairly popular in Russia after the baptism of Michael of Russia's son, Alexis of Russia.
The common hypocoristic is Alyosha or simply Lyosha. These may be further transformed into Alyoshka, Alyoshenka, Lyoshka, Lyoha, Lyoshenka, sometimes rendered as Alesha or Aleshenka in English. The form Alyosha may be used as a full first name in Bulgaria and Armenia.
In theory, Alexia is the female form. It is, however, almost non-existent in Russian-speaking countries, where Alexandra or Olesya are more common phonetically distinct female names.
The corresponding patronymics are Alexeyevich and Alexeyevna.
The following surnames derive from Alexey and its various forms:
  • Alexeyev/Alekseyev
  • Alexeyevsky
  • Alyoshin
  • Alyokhin
  • Lyoshin
  • Alexeytsev/Alekseytsev/Alekseitsev
  • Alexeychuk/Alekseychuk/Alekseichuk
  • Alexeychik/Alekseychik/Alekseichik
  • Alexeyuk/Alekseyuk
  • Alexeyenko/Alekseyenko/Alekseenko
  • Alexeychenko/Alekseychenko/Alekseichenko
  • Alexievich

    People with the given name

Royalty and historical figures

  • Alexis of Russia, Tsar of Russia from 1645 to 1676
  • Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, son of Peter I the Great
  • Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia, son of Tsar Alexander II
  • Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich of Russia, grandson of Tsar Nicholas I
  • Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, son of Nicholas II, the last Tsesarevich

    Modern figures

  • Alexey Anselm, Russian theoretical physicist
  • Aleksey Batalov, Soviet and Russian actor
  • Aleksey Chadov, Russian actor
  • Alexei Cherepanov, Russian ice hockey player
  • Alexei A. Efros, American computer scientist
  • Alexei L. Efros, American physicist
  • Alexey Goloborodko, Russian dancing contortionist
  • Aleksey Inauri, Soviet Georgian commander
  • Alexei Kovalev, Russian ice hockey player
  • Aleksei Kravchenko, Russian actor
  • Aleksey Kuleshov, Russian volleyball player
  • Alexei Leonov, Soviet cosmonaut, first person to conduct a space walk
  • Alexei Lungu, Moldovan politician and journalist
  • Alexei Makeyev, Russian ice hockey player
  • Alexei Navalny, Russian politician
  • Alexei Nemov, Russian Olympic gymnast
  • Alexey Pajitnov, inventor of the popular puzzle game Tetris
  • Alexei Ponikarovsky, Ukrainian-Canadian ice hockey player
  • Alexei Ramírez, Cuban baseball player
  • Alexey Rykov, Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician
  • Alexei Savrasov, Russian artist
  • Alexei Sayle, English comedian and author
  • Alexey Severtsev, Russian doctor
  • Alexei Shirov, Latvian-Spanish chess Grandmaster
  • Alexey Shor, American composer
  • Alexey Shved, Russian basketball player
  • Alexei Snegov, Old Bolshevik and Soviet politician
  • Alexei Tezikov, Russian ice hockey player
  • Aleksey Tolstoy, Russian and Soviet writer
  • Alexey Vishnya, Russian musician
  • Alexei Yagudin, Russian figure skater

    Fictional characters

  • Alyosha Karamazov, in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov
  • Alexey Sitsevich, in the Marvel universe

    Folklore

  • Alyoshenka, a mummified body found in the village of Kaolinovy, Russia, famously rumored to be an alien