Natasha
Feminine · “Birthday”
Natasha is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 97,652 girls against 285 boys since 1880.
Natasha began as the everyday Russian form of Natalya — the name a family used at home rather than in church registers — and it traveled into English on the strength of that warmth. Tolstoy gave it to Natasha Rostova in War and Peace, and English speakers have been saying it comfortably ever since. Three syllables, the middle one stressed and open: nuh-TASH-uh.
How old is the name Natasha?
Natasha first appears in US birth records in 1934 — 91 years ago. The typical Natasha alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 95,000 people named Natasha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Natasha most popular?
Natasha peaked in 1986, reaching #70 nationally. Today it ranks #1144, 1,074 places below that high. See the whole 1986 chart.
Where it comes from
From Natalis to Natasha
The story of Natasha
The line starts in Latin, where natalis meant 'of birth' and the phrase for Christmas Day was dies natalis Domini. Early Christians gave the name Natalia to daughters born around that feast, and it spread east through the Church into Slavic-speaking lands as Natalya. Russian speakers built the affectionate form Natasha from it, the way Yekaterina becomes Katya — a household name, not a formal one. Tolstoy's Natasha Rostova carried it into world literature in the 1860s, and English-speaking parents began using it as a full given name in its own right in the twentieth century.
Meaning
Birthday — specifically Christmas, the birth of Christ
The root is Latin natalis, 'of birth'; dies natalis Domini was the Church's term for Christmas, and girls born at that season were named for it.
How the name formed
- Natalis
- Natalia
- Natalya
- Natasha
Related forms: Наташа · Natalya · Natalia · Nathalie · Natasza · Natascha
Pronouncing Natasha
nuh-TASH-uh
The middle syllable takes the stress and rhymes with 'cash'. Russian speakers say it closer to nah-TAH-shuh, with a longer second vowel; both are correct in their own settings.
Nicknames for Natasha
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1934
- Most girls named
- 19874,131 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #70reached in 1986
- Change vs 2023
- −22.6%202 in 2025, from 261
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Natasha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Наташа in Russian — transliteration
- Natalya in Russian — related form
- Natalia in Spanish / Italian — related form
- Nathalie in French — related form
- Natasza in Polish — spelling variant
- Natascha in German — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Natashas among us
people named Natasha are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 7,957 born in 2025 was named Natasha
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kay test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Natasha's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kay climbed just as high around 1941, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kay's path sketches the road Natasha is walking now.
Natasha is coming down from a big peak (#70 in 1986). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Natasha is headed
Natasha should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Natasha beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Natasha in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Pronounced the same way by nearly everyone in English, with no competing readings to correct.
- Established short forms — Tasha, Nat, Tash — that have been in real use for generations.
- Recognizable across Russian, Spanish, Italian, French, German and Polish through its close relatives.
- A documented line running from Latin through the Church to Slavic Europe, with a literary anchor in Tolstoy.
- The spelling competes with Natascha, Natacha and Natasa, so it is worth expecting the occasional clarification — though the -sha ending is the one English speakers reach for first.
- The name reads as distinctly Russian to many Americans, and has been used that way in film and television for decades. For some families that is part of the appeal; it is worth knowing it comes with the name.
- It is strongly represented among adults now and thin on the ground in classrooms, so a child named Natasha is likely to meet grown women who share it before she meets a girl her own age who does.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Natasha
Feminine · #1144 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Natashas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 95,000 people named Natasha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Natasha in 2025?
- Natasha ranks #1144 among US girl names in 2025, with 202 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Natasha?
- About 1 in every 7,957 US girls born in 2025 was named Natasha — 202 in all.
- Will my child share the name Natasha with classmates?
- Natasha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Natasha
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Reece#1144 · Mireya#1144 · Libby#1144 · Aubrielle#1144 · Crystal#1144 · Taliyah#1139 · Allyson#1139 · Kamari#1139
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Natasha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Natasha and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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