Meaning and history
Tanisha was popularized by the African-American actress Ta-Tanisha (born Shirley Cummings, 1953–), who appeared on the television series Room 222 in the early 1970s, when the name surged in use. She apparently took her stage name from Swahili tatanisha, meaning “puzzle, tangle, confuse,” and the name likely appealed to parents partly because it resembles names such as Tamika and Natasha.
20062006: 136 births, rank #1,581
2007: 130 births, rank #1,689
2008: 131 births, rank #1,704
2009: 85 births, rank #2,286
2010: 107 births, rank #1,886
20112011: 94 births, rank #2,058
2012: 72 births, rank #2,516
2013: 58 births, rank #2,903
2014: 49 births, rank #3,272
2015: 53 births, rank #3,129
20162016: 44 births, rank #3,523
2017: 39 births, rank #3,848
2018: 37 births, rank #3,918
2019: 40 births, rank #3,718
2020: 24 births, rank #5,168
20212021: 24 births, rank #5,237
2022: 19 births, rank #6,229
2023: 17 births, rank #6,680
2024: 26 births, rank #5,021
20252025: 17 births, rank #6,546
Tanisha moved from #733 to #857 for girls between 1997 and 1998. Its highest annual birth count came in 1982, with 758 births.