Tanya (name)

Tanya or Tania is the Slavic hypocoristic of Tatiana. It is commonly used as an independent given name in the English-speaking world. 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 Tatiana "Tanya" Larina (who is rarely named by the short name in the poem). In Zimbabwe, Tanya is commonly used as a feminine given name and is often a shortened form of the Shona name Tanyaradzwa, which means "we have been comforted" or "we have been consoled". The name is typically given in times of emotional healing or recovery. Notable Zimbabwean figures with this name include British–Zimbabwean actress Tanyaradzwa "Tanya" Fear and motocross champion Tanyaradzwa "Tanya" Muzinda. Variants include Tania (Ukrainian, Romanian); Tanja (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Norwegian, German, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Dutch, Slovene and Macedonian); Táňa (Czech); Tânia; (Portuguese); and Taanya (Levant and Indian subcontinent). As of 2010 it was the 237th most common name in the United States, according to namestatistics.com, which uses US Census data.