Taras is a male Eastern European name, used particularly in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. It is probably derived from Taras

Taras (mythology)

Taras was, according to Greek mythology, the son of Poseidon and of the nymph Satyrion.Taras is the eponymous founder of the Greek colony of Taras , in Magna Graecia...

, son of the god Poseidon

Poseidon

Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...

.

The endemic spread of the name in that country is explained by its association with Taras Shevchenko

Taras Shevchenko

Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko -Life:Born into a serf family of Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko and Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko in the village of Moryntsi, of Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire Shevchenko was orphaned at the age of eleven...

, a national poet and unifying figure for the Ukrainian nation. Naming children by that name came to signify the allegiance to the national cause in a Ukrainian family.