Masha & Tamir

In Russian, Masha (Маша) is a diminutive of Maria. It has been used as a nickname or as a pet name for women named Maria or Marie. An alternative spelling in the Latin alphabet is "Macha". In Serbo-Croatian and Slovene, "Maša" is a diminutive of "Marija" but can be a given name in its own right. The Jewish name Masha (מַשה) is of Biblical extraction. Tradition has it that the first Masha was named after a departed male named Moshe (Moses).