Anastasia f
Russian: feminine form of the Greek male name Anastasios (a derivative of anastasis resurrection). It has always been popular in Eastern Europe as a result of the fame of a 4th-century saint who was martyred at Sirmium in Dalmatia, and in the Middle Ages it was in use in England too. One of the daughters of the last tsar of Russia bore this name. She was probably murdered along with the rest of the family by the Bolsheviks in 1918, but in 1920 a woman claiming to be the Romanov princess Anastasia came to public notice in Germany, and a film was subsequently based on this story (1956).
Cognates: Polish: Anastazja. Czech: Anastázie.
Short form: Russian: Nastasia.
First names dictionary. 2012.