Natsha
Derived from the Russian diminutive of Natalya, meaning "birthday" or "Christmas".
Name Census estimates that about 107 living Americans carry the first name Natsha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Natsha today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Natsha births was 1979 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Natsha. 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
107
~ 1 in 3,203,312 Americans
Peak year
1979
11 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
1994 SSA rank
#15,024
Tracked since 1973
Census
Natsha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 206 people with the first name Natsha, which placed it at #37,688 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
#37,688
National first-name rank
People counted
206
206 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
35.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Natsha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Natsha is White at 35.9%. The next largest groups are Black (29.1%) and Hispanic (21.4%). 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 Natsha 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 Natsha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White35.9% · 74
- Black or African American29.1% · 60
- Hispanic or Latino21.4% · 44
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.8% · 16
- Two or more races5.3% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Natsha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Natsha from the 1970s through to the 1990s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 51 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Natsha remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Natsha 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 Natsha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Natsha
The name Natsha has its origins in the Sanskrit language, which was the classical language of the Indian subcontinent. It is derived from the Sanskrit word 'natya,' which means 'dance' or 'dramatic performance.' The name is believed to have first emerged around the 5th century BCE, during the period of the Vedic civilization in ancient India.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Natsha can be found in the Hindu sacred text, the Mahabharata. In this epic, there is a character named Natsha, who was a skilled dancer and performer in the court of King Drupada. This reference suggests that the name was already in use during the time of the composition of the Mahabharata, which is estimated to have been between the 8th and 4th centuries BCE.
In the 2nd century CE, a renowned Indian dancer and courtesan named Natsha lived during the Gupta Empire. She was celebrated for her exceptional dancing skills and is mentioned in several historical texts from that period. Natsha is also the name of a popular classical Indian dance form that originated in the southern state of Karnataka.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Natsha. One of the earliest was Natsha Devi, a 10th-century princess and patron of the arts from the Rajput kingdom of Mewar, in present-day Rajasthan, India. She was known for her support of artists and poets during her reign.
Another notable Natsha was Natsha Pravahini, a 16th-century Indian poet and scholar from the Vijayanagara Empire. She was renowned for her mastery of Sanskrit literature and her contributions to the field of poetry.
In the 19th century, Natsha Devi was a prominent Indian classical dancer and choreographer who helped revive and popularize the Kathak dance form. She was born in 1879 and is credited with introducing Kathak to the royal courts of India.
Natsha Sharma, born in 1934, was a renowned Indian classical dancer and choreographer who specialized in the Odissi dance form. She was instrumental in promoting and preserving this ancient dance style and received numerous awards and honors for her contributions.
Lastly, Natsha Shrivastav, born in 1952, is a celebrated Indian classical dancer and choreographer. She is best known for her expertise in the Kathak dance form and has performed extensively both in India and abroad, receiving numerous accolades for her work.
People
Natsha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Natsha as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Natsha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Natsha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 107 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Natsha 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 3,203,312 US residents.
Is Natsha a common name?
We classify Natsha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 115 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Natsha most popular?
The single biggest year for Natsha was 1979, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Natsha is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Natsha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 206 people with the name Natsha, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,688 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 Natsha 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 Natsha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Natsha appears almost entirely female. Of the 205 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Natsha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Natsha is White at 35.9%. The next largest groups are Black (29.1%) and Hispanic (21.4%). 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 Natsha most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Natsha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 35.9% (74 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 Natsha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Natsha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Natsha 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 Natsha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Natsha 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 Natsha 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 have Natsha as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Natsha, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.