Tessa
Feminine · “Unsettled”
Tessa is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 55,926 girls against 13 boys since 1880.
Tessa began as a pet form of Teresa and then quietly went its own way, becoming a full name in its own right in English, Dutch and German. Two syllables, both of them easy: a hissing middle and a soft landing. It has been in continuous use in American records since the nineteenth century without ever crowding a classroom.
How old is the name Tessa?
Tessa first appears in US birth records in 1891 — 134 years ago. The typical Tessa alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 55,000 people named Tessa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tessa most popular?
Tessa peaked in 2007, reaching #190 nationally. Today it ranks #311, 121 places below that high. See the whole 2007 chart.
Tessa appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Therasia to Tessa
The story of Tessa
The line runs back through Teresa, a name that spread from the Iberian peninsula across Catholic Europe and became one of the great international names of the Church. English speakers clipped it to Tess, then extended that clip back out to Tessa, and by the nineteenth century Tessa was being recorded as a name given at birth rather than a household shortening. Dutch and German families took to it independently, where it still stands alone rather than pointing back to Teresa. Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles, published in 1891, fixed the short form firmly in English literary memory.
Meaningscholars disagree
Unsettled — through Teresa, read variously as 'summer', 'harvester', or a name from the Greek island Therasia
Tessa's meaning is Teresa's meaning, and Teresa's root has never been agreed on. The serious candidates are Greek theros, 'summer'; therizein, 'to harvest'; and the island name Therasia, borne by a fourth-century Roman woman, Therasia. Each has scholarly support and none has won. That leaves Tessa in good company — some of the oldest European names are exactly this open.
How the name formed
- Therasia
- Teresa
- Theresa
- Tess
- Tessa
Related forms: Tessa · Tessa · Tess · Teresa · Teresa · Thérèse
Pronouncing Tessa
TESS-uh
Stress on the first syllable. One pronunciation everywhere in English, and near-identical in Dutch and German.
Nicknames for Tessa
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
- 1891
- Most girls named
- 20071,753 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #190reached in 2007
- Change vs 2023
- +1.5%978 in 2025, from 964
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.
Tessa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tessa in Dutch — same name
- Tessa in German — same name
- Tess in English — related form
- Teresa in Spanish — related form
- Teresa in Italian — related form
- Thérèse in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Tessas among us
people named Tessa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,643 born in 2025 was named Tessa
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 Gretchen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tessa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gretchen climbed just as high around 1973, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gretchen's path sketches the road Tessa is walking now.
Tessa 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
Where Tessa is headed
Tessa should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Tessa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tessa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds, with no competing variant to correct — people write it correctly on the first try.
- Comes with a ready-made short form, Tess, that is itself a full name in English.
- In use in American records since the nineteenth century, with no long gap and no sudden fashion spike.
- Works unchanged in Dutch and German, and connects to Teresa across Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.
- It is already brief, so nickname options are narrow: Tess, Tessie, and not much else. If you like a name with several distinct routes, this one offers a short list.
- Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles is widely taught in schools, and it is a tragic novel. The association is literary rather than unpleasant, but some readers will make it.
- Because it started as a pet form, people occasionally assume it is short for Theresa and ask for the longer version. A one-word answer settles it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Tessa to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Tessa
Feminine · #311 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tessas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 55,000 people named Tessa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tessa in 2025?
- Tessa ranks #311 among US girl names in 2025, with 978 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tessa?
- About 1 in every 1,643 US girls born in 2025 was named Tessa — 978 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tessa with classmates?
- Tessa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tessa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Morgan#312 · Elodie#310 · Catherine#313 · Brooke#313 · Harlow#309 · Octavia#308 · Amina#315 · Francesca#307
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tessa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tessa and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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