Masha

Masha Gessen is a Russian-American journalist and activist who has written extensively about fascist politics and totalitarianism.

Masha is also the birth name of the character Elizabeth Keen from the TV show 'Blacklist', her father being Constantin Rostov and mother Katerina Rostova.
When my dad heard the name, he immediately knew it was Russian in origin. I thought it was a clever connection.

Masha is the little girl protagonist of 'Masha and Bear'.

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Masha and the Bear (Russian: Ма́ша и Медве́дь) is a Russian animated television series created by Oleg Kuzovkov and produced by Animaccord Animation Studio (Moscow, the Russian Federation), loosely based on the oral children's folk story of the same name. The show focuses on the adventures of a little girl named Masha and a fatherly bear that always keeps her from disasters.

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The first episode was released in 2009.

Masha might make people think of the Russian girl who for a while was mostly known as Disney World Girl, Internet girl and Internet Porn girl. She was adopted by an American single man who abused her and put out pornographic pictures of her on the net. She has been on Oprah, but I wouldn't call her story amazing.

There was an adopted Russian girl on Oprah with that name and an amazing story.

The Bulgarian "Maria Ilieva" known as "Masha Ilieva" is one of the best Bulgarian prima ballerinas.

Chekov used the name Masha for a couple of characters.