Tanasha
A feminine name of African origin meaning "she is immortal".
Name Census estimates that about 574 living Americans carry the first name Tanasha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tanasha today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tanasha births was 1992 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tanasha. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
574
~ 1 in 597,133 Americans
Peak year
1992
28 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2007 SSA rank
#17,421
Tracked since 1970
Census
Tanasha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 527 people with the first name Tanasha, which placed it at #19,863 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#19,863
National first-name rank
People counted
527
527 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
83.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tanasha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tanasha is Black at 83.3%. The next largest groups are White (6.3%) and Two or More Races (5.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Tanasha described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Tanasha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American83.3% · 439
- White6.3% · 33
- Two or more races5.5% · 29
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Popularity
Tanasha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tanasha from the 1970s through to the 2000s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 192 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Tanasha remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tanasha by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Tanasha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tanashas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New York, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Tanasha, while New Jersey, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tanasha
The name Tanasha is believed to have its origins in the Sanskrit language, which was spoken in ancient India. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "tantra," which means "doctrine" or "principle." The name likely emerged during the medieval period, around the 6th to 12th centuries CE, when various Tantric practices and philosophies were flourishing in India.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Tanasha can be found in the Tantric scriptures known as the Agamas. These sacred texts, dating back to the 7th or 8th century CE, contain teachings on spiritual practices, rituals, and the worship of various deities. It is possible that the name Tanasha was given to individuals who were initiated into or practiced Tantric traditions.
In the 11th century CE, a Hindu mystic and philosopher named Tanasha Vidyaranya lived in the southern Indian region of Karnataka. He was a prominent figure in the Virashaiva tradition, a Tantric-influenced spiritual movement that emphasized the pursuit of spiritual knowledge and self-realization. Vidyaranya is credited with writing several influential works on Virashaiva philosophy and practices.
Another notable figure with the name Tanasha was Tanasha Devi, a 16th-century Indian queen who ruled the kingdom of Gohad, located in the present-day state of Madhya Pradesh. She was known for her patronage of the arts, literature, and architecture, and her reign was marked by a period of cultural and economic prosperity.
In the 18th century, Tanasha Bhattacharya was a celebrated Bengali poet and scholar who made significant contributions to the literature and intellectual discourse of his time. His works explored themes of spirituality, philosophy, and the human condition, and he is considered one of the foremost literary figures of the Bengal Renaissance.
Moving into the 19th century, Tanasha Dutta was a prominent Indian social reformer and educator who fought against the practice of sati (widow burning) and advocated for women's education and empowerment. She established several schools for girls in Bengal and played a pivotal role in the broader social reform movements of that era.
While the name Tanasha has its roots in ancient Sanskrit and Tantric traditions, it has since been adopted and used in various parts of the world, particularly in regions with cultural or linguistic ties to India. However, its historical significance and connections to spiritual and philosophical practices in ancient and medieval India remain an integral part of its heritage.
People
Tanasha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tanasha as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Tanasha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tanasha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 574 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tanasha going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 597,133 US residents.
Is Tanasha a common name?
We classify Tanasha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 606 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tanasha most popular?
The single biggest year for Tanasha was 1992, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tanasha is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tanasha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 527 people with the name Tanasha, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,863 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Tanasha in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Tanasha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tanasha appears almost entirely female. Of the 523 people counted with this name, 99.0% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Tanasha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tanasha is Black at 83.3%. The next largest groups are White (6.3%) and Two or More Races (5.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Tanasha most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Tanasha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.3% (439 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Tanasha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tanasha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tanasha in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Tanasha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tanasha in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Tanasha can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Tanasha?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.