Oleg

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. While seemingly Germanic, "Oleg" is not very common outside of Eastern European countries.

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 care should be taken since such pronunciation is valid only when referring to Russian males with the name "Oleg".

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|, as in already and |h| like in help).