Tereza
Feminine
Nobody knows where Teresa comes from. It is one of the great names of Catholic Europe, carried by two of its most formidable women, and its origin has never been established — the proposals include a Greek island and a verb about harvesting, and neither survives examination. Tereza is the Portuguese and Czech spelling, with a z where English and Spanish write an s.
How old is the name Tereza?
Tereza first appears in US birth records in 1929 — 96 years ago. The typical Tereza alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 800 people named Tereza are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tereza most popular?
Tereza peaked in 1962, reaching #2814 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 10,394 places below that high. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Therasia to Tereza
The story of Tereza
The name's history begins in the Iberian peninsula in the sixth century and its spread is entirely due to two women: Teresa of Ávila, who reformed the Carmelites and wrote some of the sharpest prose in Spanish, and a twentieth-century nun in Calcutta who took her name. Portuguese and Czech both write it with a z, which is a straightforward orthographic difference rather than a variation. American records carry Tereza from 1929 in small numbers, arriving with Portuguese, Brazilian and Czech families.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No derivation has been demonstrated. The two usual proposals connect the name to Therasia, an island near Santorini, and to the Greek verb therizo, to harvest. Both are attempts to explain a name that appears first in Spain and Portugal and may not be Greek at all. Name books that print harvester are choosing a guess.
How the name formed
- Therasia
- Teresa
- Tereza
Related forms: Teresa · Tereza · Teresa · Teresa · Teresa
Pronouncing Tereza
teh-REH-zah
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Czech stresses the first syllable instead, as it does with every word — TEH-reh-za. Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese both use the middle stress.
Nicknames for Tereza
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
- 1929
- Most girls named
- 199622 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2814reached in 1962
- Change vs 2023
- −25.0%6 in 2025, from 8
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.
Tereza in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Teresa in Portuguese — same name
- Tereza in Czech — same name
- Teresa in Spanish — same name
- Teresa in Italian — same name
- Teresa in Polish — same name
Terezas among us
people named Tereza are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Tereza
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Tereza
- #13208
- Tereza on the 2025 chart
- #673
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Tereza went to 6 girls in 2025, but Teresa is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 297, which makes it the 673rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 12,535 places above the chart.
- Teresa291
- Tereza6
About 1 girl in 5,412 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 267,878 for Tereza itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Victora test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tereza's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Victora climbed just as high around 1919, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Victora's path sketches the road Tereza is walking now.
Tereza 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
Tereza beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tereza in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is standard in two European languages rather than an American variation.
- Tess and Terka are both available and belong to different worlds.
- The two women who carry the name are among the more remarkable figures of their centuries.
- Three open syllables that survive any accent intact.
- Teresa and Theresa are both commoner in America and will be written instead.
- Its meaning cannot honestly be given, and the ones printed are guesses.
- The stress falls differently in Czech and Portuguese, so relatives may not agree.
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What they receive
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Tereza
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Terezas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Tereza are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Tereza?
- Tereza is one of 2 recorded spellings. Teresa is the more common one — 291 births in 2025 against 6 for Tereza.
- How popular is the name Tereza in 2025?
- Tereza ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tereza?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Tereza — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tereza with classmates?
- Tereza will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tereza
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sabre#13208 · Chante#13208 · Brette#13208 · Deyanira#13208 · Maggy#13208 · Ragan#13208 · Rashida#13208 · Jonae#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tereza? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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