girl's name
Teresa
tuh-REE-suh
- Origin Spanish
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 3
- Letters 6
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 426,631
the United States
#909
2025 births
Teresa is a girl's name whose meaning is genuinely uncertain, though harvester is the usual reading. It is the stable spelling of the pair: Teresa holds 909th in the United States while the h-spelling Theresa has fallen to 1548th.
- Teresa is a name of Spanish origin.
- Peaked in 1961, when 18,949 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 11,393 babies in the United States is given this name.
- 3 syllables, with the stress on syllable 2.
Teresa over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 769 |
| 1890s | 1,587 |
| 1900s | 1,889 |
| 1910s | 5,199 |
| 1920s | 9,261 |
| 1930s | 7,694 |
| 1940s | 19,374 |
| 1950s | 114,514 |
| 1960s | 152,204 |
| 1970s | 56,270 |
| 1980s | 23,543 |
| 1990s | 11,980 |
| 2000s | 6,755 |
| 2010s | 4,215 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 1,955 |
What Teresa means
Teresa has no securely established meaning. Harvester or reaper, from a Greek word for summer, is the standard answer, but a link to the island of Therasia is equally proposed and neither is settled.
Where Teresa comes from
Teresa's origin is unresolved. The most cited proposal takes it from the Greek theros, summer or harvest, giving the reaper reading; others derive it from Therasia, an island near Santorini, and some hold it to be pre-Greek and unrecoverable. It emerges in Spain and Portugal, and two bearers carried it worldwide: Teresa of Ávila, the sixteenth-century Carmelite reformer and one of only four women declared a Doctor of the Church, and Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, who took the name Teresa in religion and is known as Mother Teresa. The h-less Teresa is the Spanish and Italian spelling; Theresa is the German and English one.
Teresa in use
Teresa peaked in the United States in 1961, when 18,949 babies were registered, and our data marks it stable. It now ranks 909th in the United States on 291 births, 935th in Ireland, 1369th in England and Wales and 1600th in France, across 426,631 lifetime births. Theresa, the h-spelling, peaked in the same year at 11,991 and has fallen to 1548th while this form holds — a milder version of the fork that split Debra from Deborah.
How popular is Teresa?
In 2025, Teresa was given to 291 babies in the United States, ranking #909 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Teresa is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Teresa is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Térésa | Térésa is a rare spelling of Teresa, written with an acute accent and recorded about 90 times, mostly in France. | 90 |
Names that peaked alongside Teresa
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Teresa also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Teresa over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
3 nicknames for Teresa
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Teresa in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Teresa
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Teresa — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Teresa
What does the name Teresa mean?
Not securely known. Harvester, from a Greek word for summer, is the usual answer, but a link to the island of Therasia is equally proposed.
Is it Teresa or Theresa?
Teresa is the Spanish and Italian spelling, Theresa the German and English. Teresa is the one our data marks stable.
Who was Teresa of Ávila?
A sixteenth-century Carmelite reformer and one of only four women named a Doctor of the Church.
How popular is Teresa?
909th in the United States, and our data marks it stable.
Is Teresa a girl's or a boy's name?
Teresa is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Teresa?
Teresa has 3 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Teresa?
Teresa is usually shortened to Terri, Tess and Terry.
Is Teresa a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Teresa currently ranks #909 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.