Terry
Feminine
Terry is given to both — 96,955 girls and 424,523 boys since 1880. See Terry as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Terry is two names that collided. One is a short form of Teresa; the other is an old masculine name from the Germanic Theodoric, which reached English through the French Thierry — and both landed on the same four letters.
How old is the name Terry?
Terry first appears in US birth records in 1892 — 133 years ago. The typical Terry alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 78,500 people named Terry are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Terry most popular?
Terry peaked in 1955, reaching #83 nationally. Today it ranks #9457, 9,374 places below that high. See the whole 1955 chart.
Terry appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Theodoric to Terry
The story of Terry
Theodoric was the name of the Ostrogothic king who ruled Italy after Rome fell, and French turned it into Thierry, which Norman settlers brought to England as Terry. It survived as a surname for centuries and returned as a given name in the nineteenth. Separately, Teresa produced Terry as its clipping in the twentieth. American girls' use rose through the 1940s and peaked in the mid-1950s, running alongside a still-substantial masculine use.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Through Teresa, the meaning is genuinely unknown: the two suggestions, the Greek theros, 'summer', and the island of Therasia, are both reconstructions from the sound. Through Theodoric, the meaning is settled and quite different — the Germanic theud, 'people', and ric, 'ruler'. The name does not say which parent it has.
How the name formed
- Theodoric
- Thierry
- Terry
Related forms: Thierry · Teresa · Terri · Teri
Pronouncing Terry
TAIR-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Terry, Terri, Teri and Terrie are all said the same way.
Nicknames for Terry
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
- 1892
- Most girls named
- 19555,353 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #83reached in 1955
- Change vs 2023
- +11.1%10 in 2025, from 9
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.
Terry in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Thierry in French — related form
- Teresa in Spanish — related form
- Terri in English — spelling variant
- Teri in English — spelling variant
Terrys among us
people named Terry are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 160,727 born in 2025 was named Terry
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Terry
- #9457
- Terry on the 2025 chart
- #924
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Terry went to 10 girls in 2025, but Terri and Teri 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 — 8,533 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 44,646 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 160,727 for Terry 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 Jeanette test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Terry's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jeanette climbed just as high around 1939, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jeanette's path sketches the road Terry is walking now.
Terry 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
Terry beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Terry in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two entirely separate name histories stand behind it, one Greek and one Germanic.
- It is thoroughly unisex, with a long record on both sides.
- Short, bright and easy in every English accent.
- Four spellings are current and none is dominant.
- The masculine use is still substantial, so the name does not signal sex on paper.
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What they receive
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Terry
Feminine · #9457 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Terrys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 78,500 people named Terry are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Terry?
- Terry is one of 3 recorded spellings. Terri is the more common one — 19 births in 2025 against 10 for Terry.
- How popular is the name Terry in 2025?
- Terry ranks #9457 among US girl names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Terry?
- About 1 in every 160,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Terry — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Terry with classmates?
- Terry will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Terry
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leta#9457 · Inga#9457 · Delphia#9457 · Cammie#9457 · Lisandra#9457 · Amee#9457 · Venecia#9457 · Annetta#9457
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Terry? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Terry and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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