Anastasia - Origin and Meaning of the name

[ 4 syll. a-nas-ta-sia, an-astas-ia ] The girl name Anastasia is pronounced aeNahSTEYZHah ^KEY. Anastasia's language of origin is Old Greek. It is predominantly used in English, German, Greek, and Russian. Derived from anastasis which means 'resurrection' ; ana which means 'up' ; stasis which means 'standing, standstill'. The Greek 'anastasis' is itself from 'ana' and 'stasis'. The name was borne by the venerated 4th century martyr, Saint Anastasia, who was martyred at Sirmium in Dalmatia. It was popular with early Christians due to the association of its meaning with the start of a new life for a child. The name has been used by English speakers since the 12th century, usually in the forms Anstace or Anstice. It was borne by the first tsarina Anastasia (-1560), the wife of the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible. It later picked up strong Russian associations through Princess Anastasia (1901-1918), the youngest daughter of the last tsar of Russia Nicholas II. Many believe she survived the 1918 massacre of her family after a woman claimed to be her in 1920, and she subsequently became the subject of a film in 1956. Anastasia is the feminine equivalent of the German Anastasius.

Anastasia has 35 forms that are used in both English and foreign languages. Anastacia, Anstice (also used in Scottish), Staci, and Stacie are English forms of Anastasia. Other English variants include the short form Stacia, and the pet forms Stacey, Stacy, Stash, Stasha, Stasia, and Staz.

Forms of the name used in foreign languages include the French Anastasie, the Russian, Slavic, and Ukrainian Anastasiya, the Latinized Anastassia, the Greek Anastatia, the Polish Anastazja, the Slavic Anastázia, the Czech Anastázie, the Hungarian Anasztaszia, the Hungarian Anasztázia, the Czech Nast'a, the Czech Nastenka, the Polish Nastka, and the Polish Nastusia. Specific foreign variants include the short forms Nastasia (Russian), Nastassja (German and Russian), Natasa (Greek), and Tasia (Greek), and the pet forms Anna (Hebrew), Anya (Russian), Asya (Russian), Nastassia (Polish), Nastya (Russian), Tasa (Greek), and Tasoula (Greek).

Anastasia is a rather popular baby girl name. The name has been rising in popularity since the 1960s. At the modest peak of its usage in 1998, 0.061% of baby girls were named Anastasia. It was #265 in rank then. In 2007, it ranked at #313 with a usage of 0.051%, and it was the 2nd most popular after the Hebrew, Breton, Catalan, Czech, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Scandinavian, and Slavic Anna, out of all girl names in its family. It was 7 times more commonly used than Anastasia in 2007.

Baby names that sound like Anastasia include the English Anastacia, the French Anastasie, the Greek Anastatia, the Polish Anastazja, the Czech Anastázie, the Russian, Slavic, and Ukrainian Anastasiya, the Latinized Anastassia, the Slavic Anastázia, the Hungarian Anasztaszia, the Hungarian Anasztázia, and the English and Scottish Anstice.

^KEY: Pronunciation for Anastasia: AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; S as in "sea (S.IY)" ; T as in "tea (T.IY)" ; EY as in "ate (EY.T)" ; ZH as in "seizure (S.IY.ZH.ER)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"

Popularity Trend
for Anastasia
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Anastasia
in 2007