Latausha

History & Origin

Latausha is a spelling variant of Latasha, one of the many names African American families coined in the later twentieth century by adding the melodic La- prefix to an existing name. The base, Tasha, is a short form of Natasha, the Russian pet form of Natalya, from the Latin natalis. Latasha itself became fairly familiar; the Latausha spelling, with its broader -au- vowel, was a rarer personal variation.

Latausha was always scarce. Only a few dozen girls a year were given this spelling around its mid-1970s high point, and it faded within a couple of decades. A girl named Latausha then would be in her early fifties today. It reads as an individual respelling within the large Latasha family, and its meaning is inherited from Tasha and Natasha rather than newly invented.