Terese
Feminine
Terese follows the French Therese and leaves out the h. Two very different saints carry that name — one a sixteenth-century Spanish reformer who wrote about prayer with unusual bluntness, and one a nineteenth-century French Carmelite who died at twenty-four — and the name's whole modern history runs through them.
How old is the name Terese?
Terese first appears in US birth records in 1889 — 136 years ago. The typical Terese alive today was born around 1960, making them about 65 years old. About 5,200 people named Terese are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Terese most popular?
Terese peaked in 1955, reaching #570 nationally. See the whole 1955 chart.
Where it comes from
From Teresa to Terese
The story of Terese
Teresa of Avila reformed the Carmelite order in sixteenth-century Spain, wrote about the interior life in prose that is still read, and was made a Doctor of the Church — one of very few women. Therese of Lisieux, three centuries later and in France, wrote a short autobiography that became one of the most-read religious books of its century and was canonized within thirty years of her death. The two are constantly confused. French spells the name Therese with an accent and English drops both the accent and, in this version, the h.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Teresa appears in Spain and Portugal from the eleventh century and nothing earlier connects to it convincingly. A Greek verb about harvesting and the island of Therasia have both been proposed and neither has evidence beyond a resemblance; a pre-Roman Iberian origin has also been suggested, which would put the answer beyond reach. So this is a very widely used name with no known meaning, which is rarer than it sounds.
How the name formed
- Teresa
- Thérèse
- Terese
Related forms: Thérèse · Teresa · Teresa · Therese
Pronouncing Terese
tuh-REESE
tuh-REESE, two syllables, stress at the back, the ending a crisp s. French says tay-REZ with a z at the end; Spanish says teh-REH-sah in three. This spelling follows the French shape with the English consonant.
Nicknames for Terese
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1889
- Most girls named
- 1955256 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #570reached in 1955
- Change vs 2016
- +14.3%8 in 2020, from 7
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Terese in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Thérèse in French — same name
- Teresa in Spanish — same name
- Teresa in Italian — same name
- Therese in German — same name
Tereses among us
people named Terese are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Terese sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Tess and Reese are both waiting inside it and both are complete names.
- The name is used in every Catholic language and needs no translation anywhere.
- It is two syllables where Teresa is three, which is a real economy.
- Therese, Teresa and Theresa are all standard and this spelling will be corrected toward one of them.
- The origin is genuinely unknown, so no meaning is available to hand over.
- The two saints are constantly confused, and anyone who asks about the name will get whichever one the asker knows.
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Terese
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Tereses are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,200 people named Terese are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Terese in 2025?
- Terese is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Terese with classmates?
- Terese will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Teresa#908 · Theresa#1548 · Tiffany#878 · Tammy#3645 · Taylor#403 · Tina#2778 · Tracy#2153 · Thelma#4661
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Terese? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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