Masha
A feminine Russian diminutive form of the name Maria.
Name Census estimates that about 538 living Americans carry the first name Masha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Masha today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Masha births was 2022 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Masha. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Masha with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
538
~ 1 in 637,090 Americans
Peak year
2022
33 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,422
Tracked since 1951
Census
Masha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,103 people with the first name Masha, which placed it at #11,568 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
#11,568
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,103 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Masha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Masha is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.6%). 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 Masha 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 Masha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.5% · 888
- Black or African American8.3% · 91
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.6% · 51
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 39
- Two or more races3.1% · 34
Popularity
Masha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Masha from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 140 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Masha 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 Masha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mashas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Masha
The name Masha is a diminutive form of the Russian name Maria, which is derived from the Hebrew name Miryam. The name Maria has its roots in ancient Egypt, where it was used as a transcription of the ancient Egyptian name "Mry" or "Merer," meaning "beloved." The name Maria gained widespread popularity in Europe after the rise of Christianity, as it was the name of the mother of Jesus Christ.
Masha is a common nickname for Maria in Russia and other Slavic countries. It first appeared in written records in the Middle Ages, and its use became more widespread during the Renaissance period. The earliest recorded example of the name Masha dates back to the 16th century, when it was used by Russian nobility and aristocracy.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Masha. One of the earliest was Masha Myasnova (1592-1677), a Russian noblewoman and landowner who played a significant role in the political affairs of her time. Another notable Masha was Masha Semyonova (1608-1673), a Russian merchant and philanthropist who funded the construction of churches and monasteries.
In the 19th century, Masha Zakrevskaya (1804-1867) was a renowned Russian writer and poet who contributed to the development of Russian literature. Masha Kaluzhnina (1825-1872) was a Russian actress and playwright who helped establish the Moscow Art Theatre.
More recently, Masha Gessen (born 1967) is a Russian-American journalist and author known for her critical works on Vladimir Putin's Russia. Masha Tsetlin (born 1944) is a Russian-American mathematician and computer scientist who made significant contributions to the field of machine learning.
Overall, the name Masha has a rich history that spans centuries and different cultures, with its origins rooted in ancient Egypt and its popularity in Russia and other Slavic countries. It has been borne by notable figures in various fields, including literature, theatre, and academia, making it a name with a significant cultural and historical legacy.
People
Masha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Masha as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Masha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Masha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 538 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Masha 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 637,090 US residents.
Is Masha a common name?
We classify Masha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 554 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Masha most popular?
The single biggest year for Masha was 2022, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Masha is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Masha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,103 people with the name Masha, or 0.37 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,568 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 Masha 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 Masha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Masha leans strongly female. 1,082 people counted with this name were female (97.8%), compared with 24 male bearers (2.2%). 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 Masha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Masha is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.6%). 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 Masha most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Masha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.5% (888 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 Masha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Masha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Masha 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 Masha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Masha 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 Masha 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 Americans are named Masha?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.