Tessie
Feminine
Tessie is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 9,981 girls against 10 boys since 1880.
Tessie is Teresa's clipping stretched, and Teresa's own meaning has never been recovered — one of the great names of Spanish Catholicism with an origin nobody can settle.
How old is the name Tessie?
Tessie was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Tessie alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. About 2,800 people named Tessie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tessie most popular?
Tessie peaked in 1917, reaching #310 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 10,607 places below that high. See the whole 1917 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Teresa to Tessie
The story of Tessie
Teresa of Ávila, the sixteenth-century Carmelite reformer and mystic, made the name central to Spanish and then to worldwide Catholicism; Thérèse of Lisieux repeated the effect in France three centuries later. English took Teresa and Theresa, clipped them to Tess, and stretched that to Tessie. American families registered Tessie outright, and it peaked around 1890.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Through Teresa, whose origin is genuinely unrecovered. Proposals include the Greek therizo, 'to harvest', and a connection to the island of Therasia near Santorini. Neither is established. The earliest bearer is a fourth-century Spanish saint, and the name may be pre-Greek.
How the name formed
- Teresa
- Tess
- Tessie
Related forms: Tessa · Teresa · Thérèse
Pronouncing Tessie
TESS-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Tessie and Tessy are said identically.
Nicknames for Tessie
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
- 1918360 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #310reached in 1917
- Change vs 2022
- +60.0%8 in 2025, from 5
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.
Tessie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tessa in English — related form
- Teresa in Spanish — related form
- Thérèse in French — related form
Tessies among us
people named Tessie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Tessie
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 Vada test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tessie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Vada climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Vada's path sketches the road Tessie is walking now.
Tessie 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
Tessie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tessie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Teresa stands behind it with two of the most significant women in Catholic history.
- Tess and Tessa are both available and both are current.
- Warm and immediately friendly at any age.
- The meaning is genuinely unrecovered, and honest sources say so.
- As a diminutive on the certificate it carries an informal register into adult life.
- It is strongly period-coded to the late nineteenth century.
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What they receive
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Tessie
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tessies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,800 people named Tessie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tessie in 2025?
- Tessie ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tessie?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Tessie — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tessie with classmates?
- Tessie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tessie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Adell#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tessie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tessie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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