Sasha: Meaning of Baby Name Sasha

About the Name Sasha

Sasha descends from the Russian short form of Alexander/Aleksandr (see separate entry on Alexander for the Greek Alexandros etymology meaning "defender of men"). The Russian Sasha has been used as a casual diminutive in Russian naming for over a century — used for both genders as the casual form of Alexander and Alexandra.

Notable bearers include American First Daughter Sasha Obama (Natasha Marian Obama, born 2001, the younger daughter of US President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama — anchoring the Sasha name in early-21st-century American political culture). Other notable bearers include American actress Sasha Pieterse (born 1996, the American actress of ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars 2010–2017); the contemporary fictional Sasha Banks of WWE wrestling.

Sasha's American climb has been substantial: the name climbed into the US top 300 girls' rank by 1995 and the top 200 since. The name has been driven primarily by Russian-American naming and the strong Sasha Obama American cultural anchor. The name is also occasionally used for boys. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the layered Russian-Greek-classical pedigree, the strong Sasha Obama American cultural anchor, and the popular two-syllable -sha ending. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to Russian-derived naming. The name reads as both classical-Russian and contemporary American. Common nicknames are scarce since Sasha is itself a nickname-shape — Sash (the dominant short form, casual and warm) and the rare Sashy each occasionally appear; the longer formal Alexander, Alexandra, or Aleksandr are sometimes used as Sasha's official-document version. International forms include Sasha (Russian original), Saša (Slavic), and the broader Alexander/Alexandra family.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Sasha

5,642

English baby names in our dictionary

2,251

English female names

200

5-letter S-names in our dictionary

481

S-female names total

2000–2025

years of US SSA records (26 total)

18,009

total US births named Sasha (all years)

US Popularity History (2000–2025)

📉 Falling fast: Sasha dropped 78 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#606 in 2020 → #684 in 2025).

Annual US births named Sasha by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2009 with 1,251 girls named Sasha (girl rank #262 that year).

Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #684 for girls (414 US births). That's 422 places below its 2009 peak.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Where in the US Is Sasha Most Popular?

Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Sasha the strongest states are New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts.

Strongest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	New Jersey	#408	187
2	New York	#414	441
3	Massachusetts	#427	132
4	Connecticut	#461	35
5	Maryland	#463	122
6	California	#469	729
7	Virginia	#500	146
8	Florida	#508	325
9	Oregon	#524	46
10	Washington	#541	129

Weakest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Tennessee	#1,022	21
2	Michigan	#820	85
3	Indiana	#818	25
4	Louisiana	#803	26
5	Missouri	#737	27
6	South Carolina	#734	32
7	Wisconsin	#731	51
8	Ohio	#704	105
9	Georgia	#681	116
10	Colorado	#679	65

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Sasha in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Looking for names like Sasha?

A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.

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Compare Sasha to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Sasha against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Sasha vs Olivia 210,124 births since 2014

Sasha vs Emma 202,477 births since 2014

Sasha vs Sophia 169,709 births since 2014

Sasha vs Isabella 158,431 births since 2014

Sasha vs Ava 157,356 births since 2014

Sasha vs Charlotte 151,872 births since 2014

Sasha vs Mia 149,779 births since 2014

Sasha vs Amelia 142,728 births since 2014

Compare to a different name →