girl's name
Tania
TAHN-yuh
- Origin Russian
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 5
- Popularity Uncommon
- Births on record 41,835
Northern Ireland
#501
2009 births
Tania descends from a Sabine name nobody can translate, and Shakespeare's Titania is a different word — that one comes from the Titans, so the two are unrelated despite constant confusion. Almost nothing of the Sabine language survives.
- Tania is a name of Russian origin.
- Peaked in 1993, when 857 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 35,649 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1918.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Tania over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1910s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1910s | 5 |
| 1920s | 11 |
| 1930s | 83 |
| 1940s | 234 |
| 1950s | 576 |
| 1960s | 2,864 |
| 1970s | 5,937 |
| 1980s | 4,267 |
| 1990s | 6,158 |
| 2000s | 6,179 |
| 2010s | 1,964 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 674 |
What Tania means
Tania has no established meaning. It shortens Tatiana, from a Roman family name of Sabine origin, and Sabine is too poorly attested to translate, so the name cannot be rendered into English at all.
Where Tania comes from
Tania shortens Tatiana, the feminine of the Roman Tatianus, from Tatius — the name of Titus Tatius, the Sabine king who ruled Rome jointly with Romulus. Almost nothing of the Sabine language survives, so the name cannot be translated. Saint Tatiana's veneration in the Orthodox church made it overwhelmingly Russian, and Tanya is the ordinary Russian short form. Tatiana, elsewhere on this site, is the fuller name.
Tania in use
Tania peaked in the United States in 1993, when 857 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It now ranks 1079th in France on 35 births, 2047th in the United States on 93 and 2571st in England and Wales on 11, across 41,835 lifetime births in three of the seven markets we track. France ran its own peak of 310 births in 1974.
How popular is Tania?
In 2025, Tania was given to 93 babies in the United States. It is used consistently but remains uncommon.
Where Tania is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Tania is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Tânia | Tânia is a rare spelling of Tania, written with a circumflex and recorded about 25 times, mostly in France. | 25 |
Names that peaked alongside Tania
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Tania also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Tania over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Tania in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
- Bashkir
- Tatiana
- Bulgarian
- Tania
- Finnish
- Tanja
- Italian
- Tatiana
- Kazakh
- Tatiana
- Latvian
- Tatjana
- Macedonian
- Tanja
- Polish
- Tatiana
- Russian
- Tatiana
- Serbian
- Tanja
- Tatar
- Tatiana
- Ukrainian
- Tania
- Other forms
- Forms we hold no single language for — some are used across several, some are simply spelled differently.
- Tanya
Sibling names for Tania
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Tania — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Tania
What does the name Tania mean?
Nothing established. It comes from the Sabine name Tatius, a language barely attested.
Is Tania the same as Titania?
No. Shakespeare's Titania comes from the Titans and is unrelated.
Why is it a Russian name?
Saint Tatiana is widely venerated in the Orthodox church.
How popular is Tania?
1079th in France, its strongest market, and 2047th in the United States.
Is Tania a girl's or a boy's name?
Tania is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Tania?
Tania has 2 syllables.
Is Tania a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Tania currently ranks #1,079 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.