Teressa
Feminine
Teressa is a very old name whose origin nobody has recovered. Teresa turns up in Spain in the early Middle Ages and spreads from there, and every proposal about where it came from before that has failed to convince anyone. The doubled s is a later English habit that Spanish, which does not double its s, would never have produced.
How old is the name Teressa?
Teressa was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Teressa alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 5,500 people named Teressa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Teressa most popular?
Teressa peaked in 1960, reaching #617 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 14,325 places below that high. See the whole 1960 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Teresa to Teressa
The story of Teressa
Teresa was a Spanish and Portuguese name for four centuries before it went anywhere else, and what took it out was one person: the Carmelite reformer of Avila, whose writings on prayer are still read and whose religious order spread across Catholic Europe. After her the name was available everywhere, and it arrived in English use in earnest much later. The doubled s belongs to English rather than to Spanish — English doubles a consonant after a stressed short vowel as a matter of habit, and Spanish has no double s at all, so this spelling could only have been made in an English-speaking country.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name appears in Spain and Portugal from the eleventh century and nothing earlier connects to it convincingly. The two standing proposals are a Greek verb about harvesting or reaping, and the island of Therasia near Santorini, and neither has evidence behind it beyond a resemblance. A pre-Roman Iberian origin has also been suggested, which would put the trail beyond recovery. The honest answer is that this is a very well-used name with no known meaning, which is rarer than it sounds.
How the name formed
- Teresa
- Teressa
Related forms: Teresa · Teresa · Thérèse · Teresa · Therese
Pronouncing Teressa
tuh-RESS-uh
tuh-RESS-uh, three syllables, stress in the middle, the doubled s crisp. Spanish says teh-REH-sah with a softer middle consonant and fuller vowels. The doubled s does not change the sound in English; it is a spelling habit rather than an instruction.
Nicknames for Teressa
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 1960266 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #617reached in 1960
- Change vs 2020
- −16.7%5 in 2025, from 6
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.
Teressa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Teresa in Spanish — same name
- Teresa in Italian — same name
- Thérèse in French — same name
- Teresa in Polish — same name
- Therese in German — same name
Teressas among us
people named Teressa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Teressa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Elida test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Teressa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Elida climbed just as high around 1935, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Elida's path sketches the road Teressa is walking now.
Teressa sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Teressa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Teressa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Tess and Terri are both waiting inside it and both are complete names.
- The name is used in every Catholic language and needs no translation anywhere.
- The doubled s makes the middle consonant unmistakable, which the single-s spelling leaves to convention.
- Teresa and Theresa are both far more common, and this spelling will be rewritten as one of them.
- The origin is genuinely unknown, so a family who wants a meaning to hand over will not find one.
- The name is strongly associated with the mid twentieth century in America and dates a person fairly closely.
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What they receive
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Teressa
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Teressas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,500 people named Teressa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Teressa in 2025?
- Teressa ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Teressa?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Teressa — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Teressa with classmates?
- Teressa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Teressa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hester#14942 · Lyda#14942 · Zula#14942 · Zona#14942 · Ula#14942 · Belva#14942 · Lucetta#14942 · Leala#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Teressa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Teressa and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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