Theresa
Masculine
Theresa is given to girls far more often — 404,613 girls against 1,218 boys since 1880. See Theresa as a girl name
The most famous Teresa of the sixteenth century wrote that she left the ground during prayer and did not want to. She asked the other nuns to hold her down, described the experience as frightening rather than glorious, and put the whole thing in a book she was made to write by her confessors.
How old is the name Theresa?
Theresa first appears in US birth records in 1895 — 130 years ago. The typical Theresa alive today was born around 1959, making them about 66 years old. About 700 people named Theresa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Theresa most popular?
Theresa peaked in 1895, reaching #1079 nationally. See the whole 1895 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Teresa to Theresa
The story of Theresa
Four hundred years later a different Teresa left a different kind of record. The Albanian nun who worked in Calcutta wrote letters to her confessors over half a century describing an almost total absence of any sense of God, a darkness she said she could not explain and did not want made public; she asked repeatedly that the letters be destroyed. They were not. They were published after her death by the priest handling her cause, on the argument that they showed something more valuable than certainty would have, and the book caused an argument that has not stopped. Two women with one name, four centuries apart, left first-hand accounts of the interior life, and they could not be less alike.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name's origin has never been established. It appears first in Spain and Portugal, and proposals connect it to a Greek word for summer, to an island, or to something pre-Roman in the Iberian peninsula; none has carried the field. It is unusual for a name this widespread to have no agreed meaning at all, and that should be said plainly.
How the name formed
- Teresa
- Theresa
Related forms: Teresa · Teresa · Therese · Theresia · Teresa
Pronouncing Theresa
tuh-REE-suh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The h in this spelling is silent and was added in Latin and English to make the name look Greek; Spanish, Italian and Polish all write it without one.
Nicknames for Theresa
High
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
- 1895
- Most boys named
- 196233 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1079reached in 1895
- Change vs 1989
- −58.3%5 in 1991, from 12
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.
Theresa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Teresa in Spanish — same name
- Teresa in Italian — same name
- Therese in French — same name
- Theresia in German — same name
- Teresa in Polish — same name
Theresas among us
people named Theresa are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Theresa sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Recognizable in Spanish, Italian, French, German and Polish with only small changes.
- An unusually good set of short forms, several of which became independent names.
- It has been in continuous use across Europe for eight hundred years.
- Teresa without the h is the standard spelling almost everywhere except English.
- The record carries it for boys in small numbers, so it is not quite an absolute signal.
- There is no meaning to give a child, which surprises people who expect one from a name this old.
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Theresa
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Theresas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Theresa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Theresa in 2025?
- Theresa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Theresa with classmates?
- Theresa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Thomas#34 · Timothy#203 · Tyler#219 · Terry#1115 · Theodore#4 · Travis#434 · Todd#1609 · Tony#783
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Theresa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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