Kovalyov

Kovalyov, often written as Kovalev (Russian: Ковалёв), or its feminine variant Kovalyova, Kovaleva (Ковалёва), is a common Russian surname, an equivalent of the English Smithson (derived from the Ukrainian word koval (коваль), which means "blacksmith"). Due to ambiguous status of cyrillic letter yo, the surname may be written with [[Ye (Cyrillic)|plain letter ye (Russian: Ковалев /Ковалева), though literate Russian speakers always pronounce yo.

The surname may refer to:

• Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kovalyov (b. 1982), Russian footballer
• Aleksandr Vladimirovich Kovalyov (b. 1975), Russian sprint canoer
• Alexei Kovalev (born 1973), Russian professional ice hockey player
• Anton Kovalyov (born 1992), Ukrainian-born Canadian chess grandmaster
• Gennady Kovalev (born 1983), Russian boxer
• Mikhail Kovalyov (1897–1967), Soviet military leader
• Nikolay Kovalyov (politician) (born 1949), Russian politician, Chair of the State Duma's Veterans' Committee, former head of the Federal Security Service (FSB)
• Nikolay Kovalev (fencer) (born 1986), Russian sabre fencer
• Pasha Kovalev (born 1980), Russian professional Latin and ballroom dancer
• Kovalyova is the real surname of a Russian serf actress and opera singer Praskovya Zhemchugova
• Sergey Kovalev (born 1983), Russian boxer
• Sergei Adamovitch Kovalev (born 1930), human rights activist and politician in post-Soviet Russia, former Soviet dissident and political prisoner
• Sergei Nikitich Kovalev (Petrograd, August 15, 1919 – St. Petersburg, February 24, 2011), Russian designer of the U.S.S.R. nuclear submarine
• Vladimir Kovalev (skater) (born 1953), Soviet figure skater
• Vladislav Kovalev (born 1994), Belarusian chess grandmaster

In fiction:

Central character of Nicolai Gogol's The Nose