Tanja is a Russian pet form of Tatiana. As diminutive are common in Russian speaking regions also Tanjusch or a Tanjetschka.

In German speaking Tanja is a first name that was assigned primarily in the 1970s, he was in West Germany from 1969 to 1977 through one of the ten most popular first names ， In 1960 this first name was in Germany almost unknown, since the mid-1980s, the popularity has waned again. In the GDR, the first name Tanya was only rarely awarded