Where does the Jewish name Masha come from?

Although it sounds exactly like the Russian diminutive form of Mary, the Jewish name Masha is actually of Biblical extraction. Tradition has it that the first Masha was named after a departed male named Moshe (Moses).1

One upshot is that originally "Masha" was spelled in Hebrew as מַשה. Had it had non-Hebrew roots, it would have been spelled משא, following the rules for transliterating non-Hebrew names into Hebrew.2

Yours truly,

Rabbi Menachem Posner