That was the name of my gymnastics coach for two years. I completely admired him and had a bit of a crush. :) I was eleven, I think. I called him
Ilya (he pronounced it EEL-ee-ya) but he was occasionally called Ilyusha, as well. This is still one of my favorite Russian names!
Coincedentally, his best friend (another coach) was
Andrey (spelled
Andrei) and the head coach was
Tatiana (NN:
Tanya). We also had another coach named
Aleksandr (no NN.) I love
Maria,
Dmitri (a favorite since seeing the movie
Anastasia when I was four!) and
Anastasia.