Sasha
Feminine · “defender of the people”
Sasha is given to both — 38,492 girls and 1,746 boys since 1880. See Sasha as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Sasha began life as a Russian pet form of Alexander and Alexandra — the affectionate name family used at home, not the one on the documents. It traveled west on its own, shed the formal version, and settled into English as a full name in its own right. Two syllables, the soft "sh" in the middle, and nothing left to shorten.
How old is the name Sasha?
Sasha first appears in US birth records in 1956 — 69 years ago. The typical Sasha alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 38,000 people named Sasha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sasha most popular?
Sasha peaked in 1988, reaching #147 nationally. Today it ranks #683, 536 places below that high. See the whole 1988 chart.
Sasha appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Alexandros to Sasha
The story of Sasha
The root name is Greek: Alexandros, borne by the Macedonian king Alexander the Great, whose fame carried it across the ancient world and into nearly every European language. Russian took in both Aleksandr and Aleksandra and gave them the same household short form, Sasha, used freely for men and women alike — a pattern still standard across Russia, Ukraine and the Balkans. English speakers met it through Russian literature, emigration and film in the twentieth century, and adopted it as a standalone given name, most often for girls. In American records it has been present for several generations without ever crowding a classroom.
Meaning
defender of the people
Sasha is a diminutive rather than a word in itself; the meaning comes from Greek Alexandros, built from alexein, to defend, and andros, of man.
How the name formed
- Alexandros
- Alexander / Alexandra
- Aleksandr / Aleksandra
- Sasha
Related forms: Саша · Sacha · Sascha · Saša · Sashko · Alexandra
Pronouncing Sasha
SAH-shuh
Also widely said SASH-uh in the US, with the first vowel as in cash. Both are accepted; the stress stays on the first syllable either way.
Nicknames for Sasha
Moderate
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
- 1956
- Most girls named
- 19881,886 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #147reached in 1988
- Change vs 2024
- −10.8%414 in 2025, from 464
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.
Sasha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Саша in Russian — transliteration
- Sacha in French — spelling variant
- Sascha in German — spelling variant
- Saša in Serbian / Croatian — spelling variant
- Sashko in Ukrainian — related form
- Alexandra in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Sashas among us
people named Sasha are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,882 born in 2025 was named Sasha
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 Doreen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sasha's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Doreen climbed just as high around 1956, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Doreen's path sketches the road Sasha is walking now.
Sasha sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Sasha is headed
Sasha should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Sasha beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sasha in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables, spelled the way it sounds to most English readers, and short enough that it needs no nickname of its own.
- Recognized across Russian, French, German and Balkan usage, so it travels without translation or explanation.
- Sits on a documented line back to Greek Alexandros, one of the longest continuously used names in Europe.
- Present in American records across several generations, so it reads as familiar rather than newly coined.
- Comes with Alexandra ready-made as a formal counterpart if a longer version is ever wanted.
- Sacha, Sascha and Saša are all established spellings elsewhere, so expect to confirm which one you mean fairly often.
- Across Russian, Ukrainian and Balkan communities Sasha is just as much a man's nickname — from Alexander — as a woman's, and people from those backgrounds may read it that way first.
- It is, at root, a diminutive, and a few relatives may treat it as the short form of something longer even when it stands alone on the birth certificate.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Sasha
Feminine · #683 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sashas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 38,000 people named Sasha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sasha in 2025?
- Sasha ranks #683 among US girl names in 2025, with 414 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sasha?
- About 1 in every 3,882 US girls born in 2025 was named Sasha — 414 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sasha with classmates?
- Sasha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sasha
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Coraline#683 · Wrenleigh#683 · Ellis#682 · Chana#686 · Rosalina#680 · Alondra#680 · Dallas#686 · Jenna#679
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sasha? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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