Teresa
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "huntress" or "harvester".
Name Census estimates that about 313,745 living Americans carry the first name Teresa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Teresa today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Teresa births was 1961 (18,949 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Teresa. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Teresa with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Teresa is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,165 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Teresa have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
314K
~ 1 in 1,092 Americans
Peak year
1961
18,949 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
1995 SSA rank
#871
Tracked since 1880
Census
Teresa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 402,459 people with the first name Teresa, which placed it at #118 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#118
National first-name rank
People counted
402K
402,459 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
133.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Teresa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Teresa is White at 65.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.6%) and Black (6.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Teresa described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Teresa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.7% · 264,279
- Hispanic or Latino22.6% · 90,797
- Black or African American6.5% · 26,236
- Two or more races2.4% · 9,682
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 8,981
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 2,484
Gender
Gender distribution for Teresa
Out of the 416,911 babies given the name Teresa since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Teresa as a male name
- Ranked #5,876 in 1995
- 10 male births in 1995
- Peak: 1963 (52 births)
Teresa as a female name
- Ranked #871 in 2024
- 310 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1961 (18,909 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Teresa appears almost entirely female. Of the 402,455 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Teresa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Teresa from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 152,201 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Teresa by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Teresa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Teresas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Teresa, while Vermont, New Hampshire, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8,011 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Teresa
Teresa is a feminine given name of Greek origin, derived from the Greek word "therizo" which means "to harvest" or "to reap." It is believed to have originated in the 3rd century AD on the island of Sicily, where Greek culture had a significant influence.
The name Teresa gained widespread popularity in the Christian tradition due to its association with Saint Teresa of Avila, a Spanish mystic and reformer of the Carmelite Order, who lived from 1515 to 1582. Her life and teachings had a profound impact on the Catholic Church, and her name became a popular choice for baby girls, particularly in Spain and other Spanish-speaking regions.
In the 4th century, the name Teresa appeared in the writings of Saint Jerome, a scholar and translator of the Bible. He mentioned a Christian martyr named Teresa who was executed during the persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Teresa is found in the 12th century, when a Spanish noblewoman named Teresa of Portugal (1181-1250) became the Queen of León and Castile through her marriage to King Alfonso IX.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Teresa, including:
1. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), a Spanish mystic, writer, and reformer of the Carmelite Order, who was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
2. Mother Teresa (1910-1997), a Roman Catholic nun who dedicated her life to serving the poor and destitute and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
3. Teresa Teng (1953-1995), a renowned Taiwanese singer and actress, often referred to as the "Queen of Mandarin Pop."
4. Teresa Graves (1948-2002), an American actress and comedian, best known for her role as an undercover police officer in the television series "Get Christie Love!"
5. Teresa Weatherspoon (born 1965), a former American basketball player and coach, who played in the WNBA and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.
The name Teresa has maintained its popularity throughout the centuries, transcending cultural and linguistic boundaries, and continues to be a beloved choice for parents around the world.
People
Teresa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Teresa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Teresa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Teresa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 313,745 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Teresa going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,092 US residents.
Is Teresa a common name?
We classify Teresa as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 416,911 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Teresa most popular?
The single biggest year for Teresa was 1961, when 18,949 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Teresa is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Teresa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 402,459 people with the name Teresa, or 133.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #118 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Teresa in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Teresa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Teresa appears almost entirely female. Of the 402,455 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Teresa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Teresa is White at 65.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.6%) and Black (6.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Teresa most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Teresa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.7% (264,279 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Teresa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Teresa a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Teresa in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Teresa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Teresa in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Teresa can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Teresa?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.