ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Sasha Obama's Name Is Really Natasha & Twitter Can't Handle It

During Barack Obama's presidency and even afterward, we all felt like we knew the Obama family, even if it was just through their cute interviews and vacation photos. So it's shaken us to our core to learn that all this time we haven't even known Sasha Obama's real name.
On June 11, Refinery29 senior features writer Ashley C. Ford tweeted, "Today is the one year anniversary of me finding out Sasha Obama's actual first name is Natasha," and the internet responded with a collective, "Whaat?"
It turns out Sasha really is a nickname for Natasha, The Huffington Post reports. This has been out there for a while, but we just haven't been paying attention. When she took a job at Martha's Vineyard last summer, The New York Daily News reported that she was "going by her full name Natasha (yes, that’s her real name) while on the job." Her Infoplease page reads, "Her formal name is Natasha, but she is most often called by her nickname, Sasha." And she's listed under the Wikipedia page for the name Natasha.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
"As is common for Natashas the world over, the Obamas shorten their Natasha's name to Sasha," the name's Nameberry entry reads. How did we miss this?
It took a while for people to process this information.
Some refused to believe it altogether.
Sasha does seem to be a known nickname for Natasha, albeit not a common one. It's listed as one by Baby Name Wizard, but not by Best Nickname Tees. We're not sure why the youngest Obama goes by Sasha, but one Twitter user has a theory: that Beyoncé inspired it through her alter ego Sasha Fierce.
Can we be sure of anything anymore? Next thing you know, we'll find out that Bo is really just a nickname for Beauregard.

More from People

ADVERTISEMENT