Tosha
Feminine
Russian makes pet names with -sha and the ending does not care about sex. Sasha serves Alexander and Alexandra equally. Zhenya does the same for Yevgeny and Yevgenia. Valya, Vasya, Misha and Tosha all behave the same way, which is why Russian nicknames confuse English speakers so reliably.
How old is the name Tosha?
Tosha first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Tosha alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 6,500 people named Tosha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tosha most popular?
Tosha peaked in 1977, reaching #554 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 11,378 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Antonina to Tosha
The story of Tosha
The -sha suffix is one of the most productive in Russian and it works by taking a syllable from the middle or the end of a name and adding the ending, which is why the results often look unrelated to their parents: Alexander gives Sasha, Yevgeny gives Zhenya, Anton and Antonina both give Tosha, and Mikhail gives Misha. Because the ending attaches to a stem rather than to a grammatical form, it does not carry sex, and a great many Russian pet names are genuinely neutral in a way English ones are not. Chekhov used one of them as a pen name — he signed his early comic sketches Antosha Chekhonte — which is the same suffix on the same root.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Tosha is a Russian pet form of Antonina or Anton, and separately an American clip of Natasha or Latosha. Antonius, the Roman family name behind Anton, has no established meaning. Neither road produces a documented sense for this spelling.
How the name formed
- Antonina
- Tosha
Related forms: Tosha
Pronouncing Tosha
TOH-shuh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Russian says it the same way with a slightly shorter first vowel. TAH-shuh, with an open first vowel, is used in families who take it from Natasha.
Nicknames for Tosha
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
- 1958
- Most girls named
- 1980324 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #554reached in 1977
- Change vs 2016
- +16.7%7 in 2025, from 6
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.
Tosha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tosha in Russian — same name
Toshas among us
people named Tosha are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Tosha
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 Valorie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tosha's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Valorie climbed just as high around 1952, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Valorie's path sketches the road Tosha is walking now.
Tosha 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
Tosha beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tosha in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables and five letters, with nothing hard in either.
- It is a real Russian pet form as well as an American one.
- The Russian ending it carries is genuinely neutral, which very few endings are.
- Natasha and Tasha are both commoner in America and will be substituted.
- The one-syllable clip is British slang for rubbish, which is worth knowing.
- It is strongly represented among older generations and places the name in the last century.
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What they receive
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Tosha
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Toshas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,500 people named Tosha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tosha in 2025?
- Tosha ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tosha?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Tosha — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tosha with classmates?
- Tosha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tosha
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tosha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tosha and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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