Taras
Meaning
traditionally linked to the Greek name Tarasios; meaning disputed, borne by national poet Taras Shevchenko
Goes by Tarasyk
The story
Taras is the Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian form of the Greek Tarasios, which possibly means "from Taras", the Greek colony in southern Italy now called Taranto, itself named for a mythological son of Poseidon. The published American record holds a small, steady line: about 100 boys in the 1950s, about 170 in the 1960s, and a few dozen a decade since, present without ever being common. Brazil's census holds a handful with a median age of sixty-eight. Behind the name sits a chain nobody would invent: a Byzantine saint's name, a Greek port in Italy, and a god of the sea at the bottom of the harbor, all carried in two syllables that the records keep quietly on the books.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Taras has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
22 people · the #116,443 first name in Brazil · median age 68
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Taras
People given the name Taras in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1960 to 2009. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Taras deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Taras truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Taras fits with your family’s names and surname.
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