Teri
Feminine
Teri is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 43,957 girls against 214 boys since 1880.
Teri is the shortest way to write a sound that four spellings shared. Teresa supplied it; the -i ending is the mid-century American finish applied to Vicki, Kelli, Traci and dozens more at the same moment.
How old is the name Teri?
Teri first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Teri alive today was born around 1963, making them about 62 years old. About 39,000 people named Teri are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Teri most popular?
Teri peaked in 1960, reaching #171 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 11,761 places below that high. See the whole 1960 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Teresa to Teri
The story of Teri
Teresa was a Spanish and Portuguese name of limited range until a sixteenth-century Carmelite reformer and writer from Ávila made it one of the most-given names in the Catholic world. English-speaking countries took it up much later, mostly as Theresa. The clippings followed in the twentieth century, and mid-century America wrote them four ways: Terri, Terry, Terrie and Teri. This spelling peaked in the early 1970s.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Teresa's origin is genuinely unestablished. The two most-repeated suggestions — the Greek theros, 'summer', and the island of Therasia — are both reconstructions working backwards from the sound. The name appears first in Spain and Portugal, which is where the trail begins and where it stops.
How the name formed
- Teresa
- Theresa
- Teri
Related forms: Teresa · Thérèse · Terri · Terry
Pronouncing Teri
TAIR-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. All four spellings are said identically.
Nicknames for Teri
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
- 1920
- Most girls named
- 19612,242 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #171reached in 1960
- Change vs 2023
- +16.7%7 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.
Teri in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Teresa in Spanish — related form
- Thérèse in French — related form
- Terri in English — spelling variant
- Terry in English — spelling variant
Teris among us
people named Teri are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Teri
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Teri
- #11932
- Teri on the 2025 chart
- #924
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Teri went to 7 girls in 2025, but Terri and Terry are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 36, which makes it the 924th most-given girls’ name of the year — 11,008 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 44,646 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Teri 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 Cleo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Teri's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cleo climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cleo's path sketches the road Teri is walking now.
Teri 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
Teri beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Teri in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Teresa behind it is one of the most widely used women's names in the Catholic world.
- The tidiest spelling of the four, with nothing doubled.
- Bright and easy in English, Spanish and Italian mouths alike.
- Four spellings were current at once, so it is written wrongly more often than rightly.
- Terry is also a common man's name, which makes the sound unisex whatever the spelling.
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What they receive
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Teri
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Teris are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 39,000 people named Teri are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Teri?
- Teri is one of 3 recorded spellings. Terri is the more common one — 19 births in 2025 against 7 for Teri.
- How popular is the name Teri in 2025?
- Teri ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Teri?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Teri — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Teri with classmates?
- Teri will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Teri
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Teri? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Teri and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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