[quote=kalinka_vinnie][quote="Оля":1kde7bde]
Quote Originally Posted by "kalinka_vinnie":1kde7bde
If you don't like Olya, what is your preferred transliterated name?
Well... "Olia" is not bad.
"Ola" too.
The best variant is Оля, of course! [/quote:1kde7bde]

Hm, Ola is actually a male name in Norwegian (and sounds like hello in Spanish) and in America Olya is a perfrectly normal way to spell and pronounce the Russian Оля. In fact, presented with the two words Olya and Olia, Americans (and Brits?) will pronounce your name more correctly with Olya...

I wonder why you don't like the y! Yeltsin didn't seem to have a problem, neither did Yugoslavia! [/quote:1kde7bde]

When Е Я Ю Ё are at the beginning of the word they begin with a Й sound, so a Y is perfectly fine.

After consonants they palatise the consonant, so a Y isn't 100% accurate. It's the best English can do though.
Unless Oля want to be Ol'a.
Ola actually sounds closer to Russian Оля than an English speaker would prounce Olya or Olia.

Yugoslavia in Croatian and Serbian (latin script) is Jugoslavija and in Serbian Cyrillic Jугославиjа