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Looking at all the replies here, I do wonder if Chris Claremont (Then, the writer of both The New Mutants, and The Uncanny X-Men where the character was introduced both in 1975, and 1981) had in mind a female form of Ilya, in reference to the Russian folk hero, Ilya Muromets. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Muromets) There are a few paralells if you've ever seen the movie 'The Sword & The Dragon', which is a loose retelling of the folktales. In that movie, Ilya's son Falcon is stolen away by a conquering horde, then raised as a warrior to be the conquering Khan's champion, with the aim of eventually defeating Ilya.

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In the New Mutants comic we get the little sister of the X-Man, Colossus. (Piotr Rasputin) Illyana Nikolaievna Rasputina was stolen away from her own dimension (and the X-Men who had been trying to save her) by an eldritch black sorcerer named Belasco. He stole a piece of her soul with the eventual intent of summoning elder gods to create a hell on earth. However, Illyana's spirit preservered against the demon's corruption. And when her mutant gifts manifested, she found that she could teleport in space and time. Using her powers, the magic she'd learned, and a 'soulsword' manifested as a blade of her purest essence, she escaped from Belasco and his Limbo dimension. She has since gained back the stolen parts of her soul and has been an X-Man in her own right, a fully self-actualized superheroine and sorceress supreme of Limbo.

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The paralells would be that of a child stolen when quite young by an evil person, then returned much older and more powerful. Brash but with a good heart buried within to redeem them. I'd think twice before dismissing OP's namesake for their daughter simply because it came from a comic.

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The movie for Ilya Morumets is a bit cheesy by modern standards, but actually still stands on its own as a children's movie/folktale. (if a bit violent) For adults, it even got a turn on Mystery Science Theater in the 90's, and is one of the better and funnier episodes. Ilya Muromets was released in the Soviet Union in 1956, and imported to the US under the name The Sword and the Dragon by Roger Corman in 1963.

my name is Illyana so when you said no one else has that name you were wrong so peace bye

My name is Ilyana and I was named after a character in a book, 'Jared' had a character named Ilya and a baby was named after him as Ilyana, Ilya is Russian but Ilyana is not, from what I've found it's of west Asian origin, more specifically Aramaic origin meaning: gods' little dove. Il means gods' and yana means bird, I am just realizing you posted this in 2004 so I doubt you would find this useful now but I sent it anyhow.

My mom named me from the comics as well. I've seen the name can be light or bright.

Illyana exists in greek too and is a combination of Ilias (from helios, meaning sun) and the name Anna.

...Iliana,Ileana forms of Helena. Princess Ileana of Romania
became a saintly nun.

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I don't know how you are pronouncing your daughter's name
but in Australia we would say it is 'Illy-ana' but I would
say that some people would pronounce it 'Ill-yana'.

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Thanks
Roxane
(11.30pm,05/01/2004)

Eeer, no offense but... you took your daughter's name from a comic book?!?
Anyways, plenty of people have that name. It's the female form of Ilya.