Tanya is the Slavic hypocoristic of Tatiana. It is commonly used as an independent given name in the English-speaking world.[1] The name's popularity among English-speakers (and other non-Slavs) was originally due to the popularity of Alexander Pushkin's verse novel Eugene Onegin, whose heroine is named Tatiana "Tanya" Larina (who is rarely named by the short name in the poem). Some people also claim that the popularity of "Tanya" in Anglophone world is due to Ukrainian emigrees to Canada, who escaped Ukraine during the Civil War of 1918-20.

Tanya
Pronunciation/ˈtɑːnjə/, /ˈtænjə/
GenderFeminine
Language(s)
  • Aramaic
  • Ancient Greek
  • Latin
  • Persian
  • Russian
  • Sanskrit
  • Ukrainian
Origin
Word/name
Meaning
  • Short form of Tatiana
  • Ancient Greek (Establisher, Decider)
  • Hebrew ('תניא', it was taught)
  • Latin ('tatius', great)
  • Russian (Ruler, Regent)
  • Sanskrit (Daughter)
  • Persian (unique girl)
Other names
Variant form(s)LaTanya

Variants include Tania (Ukrainian,[1] Romanian[2]); Tanja (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Norwegian, German, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Dutch, Slovene and Macedonian);[1] Táňa (Czech); Tânia; (Portuguese); and Taanya (Levant and Indian subcontinent).[2]

As of 2010 it was the 237th most common name in the United States, according to namestatistics.com, which uses US Census data.[3]

People with the name

edit

Fictional characters

edit

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c Patrick Hanks & Flavia Hodges, 1990, A Dictionary of First Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-211651-7.
  2. ^ a b Samek, Ondřej; Malačka, Jan. "Jméno" (in Czech). www.kdejsme.cz. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  3. ^ "Tanya". namestatistics.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 9 October 2010.