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Tanja

Girls' name

Variant of Tanya

Tanja has been given to 2,580 babies in the U.S. since 1943. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1970, with 153 recorded.

Babies named Tanja, 2007

1 in 571,000

Tanja over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Tanja: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Tanya

Russian

What Tanja means

Tanja is a variant of Tanya.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Tanja is used in German, Dutch, Finnish, Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Macedonian, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈtan.ja/, /ˈtɑn.jaː/, /ˈtɑn.jɑ/ and /ˈta.ɲa/ for Tanja.

Origin, language, and formation

Tanja is used in English, Czech, Danish, Faroese, Finnish, German, Ingrian and Norwegian and additional language sections. Its origins include Russian.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Tanya, Tania, Татья́на, Татьяна and Tatjana.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Czech, Tanja is pronounced [ˈtanja].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,580 girls were recorded with the name Tanja between 1943 and 2007. Its highest annual count was 153 in 1970; its best national rank was #875 in 1970.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Tanja?

Tanja had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2007, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2007
1 in 571,000
7 of 3,997,748 births
Among girls only
1 in 275,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2007
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
395,862 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Tanja sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2007 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 395,862 children born in 2007 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Tanja. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Tanjas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Tanja was born before 1970 — so the typical Tanja is around 55 today.

Median birth year
1970
About 55 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
36.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
14.3%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,570
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 36.9% of all recorded uses (951).

Is Tanja rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1970 (153)
Years since peak
55
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
30.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#875
1970

Spellings of Tanja

Tanja is not the most common spelling — Anna is, with 31.4% against Tanja's 0.09%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Tanja is used

Across 1910–2025, Tanja was most concentrated in Alabama — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 128,622 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Alabama1 in 100,000
  2. 2California1 in 100,000
  3. 3Florida1 in 100,000
  4. 4Georgia1 in 100,000
  5. 5Illinois1 in 100,000
  6. 6Louisiana1 in 100,000
  7. 7Michigan1 in 100,000
  8. 8Minnesota1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Tanja has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Tanja around the world

Where Tanja ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2000–2000
    #3,247
    in 2000
  • Ireland
    1972–1972
    #471
    in 1972
  • France
    1968–2023
    #6,685
    in 2023
  • Norway
    1880–2012
    #561
    in 2012
  • Canada
    1991–1996
    #2,558
    in 1996
  • South Australia
    1954–2010
    #801
    in 2010

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Tanja

People whose public names include Tanja, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Tanja in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Tanja. Linked forms have their own page here.

TaniaTanyaTatyanaTânia

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Tanja by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#875
1970
Peak year
1970
153 that year
First recorded
1943
Last recorded
2007
All-time count
2,580
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Tanja

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

TanviTannerTanayaTaniyaTannaTaniTansyTaniyahTanaTandyAnjaTanisTanasiaTaniaTaneaTanekaTanikaTanylaTanaeTandraTandiTangieTandaTaniah

Names with a curve like Tanja

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Tanja, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

TamalaKimberelyDetraTowandaTammaraFelisaTamathaDenitaKelleCorettaYolondaMechelle

Sibling names for Tanja

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Tanja

Top names of 1970, Tanja's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1970Girls' names starting with T