Taras as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Taras

What is the meaning of the name Taras ?

The baby name Taras is a Male name , 2 syllables long and is pronounced /tɑˈrɑs/ (Ukrainian: ta-RAHS),/təˈrɑːs/ (Anglicized: tuh-RAHS).

Taras is Ukrainian in Origin.

Taras is an East Slavic given name ultimately from Greek Tarasios (Ταράσιος). The root is linked to Taras, the mythic son of Poseidon and eponym of Tarentum (Taras) in Magna Graecia, yielding the sense “man of Taras/Tarentum”; some scholars instead associate it with Greek tarássō, “to stir, trouble.” The name spread through the Eastern Orthodox world via Saint Tarasios (Tarasius), 8th-century Patriarch of Constantinople and defender of icons, and entered Slavic calendars in the ecclesiastical form Tarasiy.

Used across Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, it is especially emblematic in Ukraine through the legacy of national poet Taras Shevchenko and Cossack lore; it also appears in literature (Gogol’s Taras Bulba) and the Ukrainian diaspora. Variants include Tarasios (Greek), Tarasius (Latin), Tarasiy (East Slavic ecclesiastical), and Tarasio/Tarásio in Romance hagiographic usage; the feminine is Tarasia/Tarasiya. Diminutives: Tarasyk/Tarasik, Tarasko. Patronymic surnames such as Tarasenko and Tarasov derive from this name.