Login
Login

Oleg

{{About|the Slavic masculine given name||Oleg (disambiguation)}}

{{use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}

{{short description|Given name}}

{{Infobox Given Name Revised

|name=Oleg

|image=Oleg of Novgorod.jpg

|imagesize=

|caption=Oleg of Novgorod by Viktor Vasnetsov

|pronunciation=

|gender=Male

|meaning=Holy

|region=Eastern Europe

|origin=Old Norse

|related names=Olga, Helge

|footnotes=

}}

Oleg ({{langx|ru|Олег}}), Oleh ({{langx|uk|Олег}}), or Aleh ({{langx|be|Алег}}) is an East Slavic given name. The name is very common in Russia, Ukraine, and Belаrus.

Origins

Oleg derives from the Old Norse Helgi (Helge), meaning "holy", "sacred", or "blessed".{{cn|date=December 2024}} The feminine equivalent is Olga.{{cn|date=December 2024}} While Germanic in origin, "Oleg" is not very common outside Eastern European countries, while "Helge" and "Helga" are common names in Scandinavia.{{cn|date=December 2024}}

Russian pronunciation

Олег (Oleg) is pronounced [ɐˈlʲek] in Russian. The English pronunciation of Oleg is based on the transliteration of the Cyrillic alphabet, and overlooks four key features of the Russian pronunciation:

  1. The stress is on the second syllable. In spoken Russian, the initial short unstressed 'O' is reduced to [ɐ], similar to the 'a' as in 'about'.
  2. The 'л' (l) becomes palatalized to [lʲ] ─ that is, it gains a 'y'-like quality, and but is still most closely approximated by a plain English 'l'.
  3. The Russian letter 'e' is pronounced 'ye' as in 'yellow'.
  4. The final 'г' (g) is devoiced to [k].

Thus although English speakers tend to pronounce the name as 'Óh-legg', in Russian it sounds more like 'Al-yék', the equivalent of Alec.

Ukrainian pronunciation

The Ukrainian pronunciation of the name 'Олег' is different from Russian, though the same Cyrillic letters are used in writing. Ukrainian 'Олег' is pronounced [oˈlɛɦ] and becomes 'Oleh' in English according to the transliteration rules.[https://www.kmu.gov.ua/ua/npas/243262567 ТАБЛИЦЯ транслітерації українського алфавіту латиницею]. kmu.gov.ua {{in lang|uk}}

Belarusian spelling and pronunciation

In Belarusian, the name is spelled and pronounced as "Алег" [aˈlʲeɣ] so that the first letter changes to "A" according to the Belarusian feature of akannye. The last letter is also pronounced differently, which renders the Latin transliteration 'Aleh'.

People named Oleg

= Rulers and nobles =

= Others =

and co-founder of the Soviet resistance group, the Young Guard

1942), Russian scientist and inventor

Fictional characters

=Film=

=Television=

= Video games =

References

{{reflist}}

{{Given name}}

Category:Bulgarian masculine given names

Category:Slavic masculine given names

Category:Russian masculine given names

Category:Masculine given names

Category:Ukrainian masculine given names

Category:Lists of people by given name