Alexey, Alexei, Alexie, Aleksei, or Aleksey (russian: Алексе́й ; bg, Алексей ) is a Russian and Bulgarian male first name deriving from the Greek ''Aléxios'' (), meaning "Defender", and thus of the same origin as the Latin Alexius. Alexey may also be

romanized Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

as ''Aleksei'', ''Aleksey'', ''Alexej'', ''Aleksej'', etc. It has been commonly westernized as Alexis. Similar Ukrainian and

Belarusian Belarusian may refer to: * Something of, or related to Belarus * Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent * A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus * Belarusian language * Belarusian culture * Belarusian cuisine * Byelor ...

names are romanized as Oleksii (Олексій) and Aliaksiej (Аляксей), respectively. The Russian Orthodox Church uses the

Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language. Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with Standard language, standardizing the lan ...

version, Alexiy (Алексiй, or Алексий in modern spelling), for its Saints and hierarchs (most notably, this is the form used for Patriarchs Alexius I and Alexius II). The common hypocoristic is Alyosha () or simply Lyosha (). These may be further transformed into Alyoshka, Alyoshenka, Lyoshka, Lyoha, Lyoshenka (, respectively), sometimes rendered as Alesha/Aleshenka in English. The form Alyosha may be used as a full first name in Bulgaria (Альоша) and Armenia. In theory, Alexia is the female form. It is, however, almost non-existent in Russian-speaking countries. A popular Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian female name Olesia/ Olesya/ Alesia/ Alesya is one possible form. The patronymics based on Alexey are Alexeyevich and Alexeev (male) and Alexeyevna and Alexeeva (female). The following surnames derive from Alexey and its various forms: * Alexeyev/Alekseyev * Alexeyevsky * Alyoshin * Alyokhin (Alekhine (disambiguation), Alekhine, Alekhin (disambiguation), Alekhin) * Lyoshin * Alexeytsev/Alekseytsev /Alekseitsev * Alexeychuk/Alekseychuk/Alekseichuk * Alexeychik/Alekseychik/Alekseichik * Alexeyuk/Alekseyuk * Alexeyenko/Alekseyenko/Alekseenko * Alexeychenko/Alekseychenko/Alekseichenko * Alexievich (surname), Alexievich Alexeyevka, Russia, Alexeyevka is a common Russian village name.

Persons known by first name Alexey and variants

*Alexis of Russia, Tsar of Russia from 1645 to 1676, son of Tsar Michael *Aleshenka, a rumored alien found in Russia *Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia, son of Tsar Alexander II *Alexey Andreevich Anselm, Russian theoretical physicist *Alexei Cherepanov (1989–2008), Russian hockey player *Alexei A. Efros, American computer scientist *Alexei L. Efros, American physicist *Alexey Goloborodko, Russian dancing contortionist *Oleksiy Honcharuk, Alexey Goncharuk (Oleksiy Honcharuk), former Ukrainian prime minister *Aleksi Inauri (1908–1993), Soviet Georgian commander who headed the Georgian KGB *Alexei Ivanov (disambiguation), several people *Alyosha Karamazov, Alexey Karamazov, fictional character from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's ''The Brothers Karamazov'' *Alexei Kovalev, Russian professional ice hockey player *Aleksei Yevgenyevich Kravchenko, Russian actor *Aleksey Kuleshov, Russian volleyball player *Alexei Leonov, pioneering Russian cosmonaut, first person to conduct a space walk *Alexei Makeyev (born 1991), Russian ice hockey player *Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich of Russia, grandson of Tsar Nicholas I *Alexei Navalny, Russian politician *Alexei Nemov, Russian Olympic gymnast *Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, the son of Nicholas II of Russia and Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse) and younger brother of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia *Alexey Pajitnov, inventor of the popular puzzle game Tetris *Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich of Russia, son of Peter I the Great *Alexei Ponikarovsky, Ukrainian-Canadian professional 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 *Alexei Shirov, Latvian-Spanish chess Grandmaster *Alexey Shved, Russian basketball player *Alexey Sorokin (disambiguation), several people *Aleksei Sytsevich, fictional character in the Marvel universe, better known as Rhino (comics), Rhino *Alexei Tezikov (1978–2020), Russian ice hockey player *Alexei Yagudin, Russian figure skater

Persons known by first name Alexey and variants

See also