Tereza
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "harvester."
Name Census estimates that about 715 living Americans carry the first name Tereza. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tereza today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tereza births was 1996 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tereza. 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.
People living today
715
~ 1 in 479,377 Americans
Peak year
1996
22 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,888
Tracked since 1929
Popularity
Tereza: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tereza from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 148 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Tereza remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tereza 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 Tereza during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Terezas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tereza
The name Tereza is derived from the Greek name Theresia, which is the feminine form of Theresios, meaning "harvester" or "reaper." It is related to the Greek word "theros," meaning summer or harvest. The name first gained popularity in the 4th century BCE among Greek-speaking populations in the Mediterranean region.
Tereza was a widely used name in ancient Greece and Rome, appearing in various historical records and literary works from that time period. One of the earliest known references comes from the writings of the Greek philosopher Plato, who mentioned a woman named Tereza in his dialogues.
During the Middle Ages, the name Tereza became closely associated with Christianity, particularly through the veneration of Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), a Spanish mystic and reformer of the Carmelite Order. Her life and teachings influenced the spread of the name across Europe.
In the Renaissance period, the name Tereza gained prominence among the nobility and upper classes, notably with Tereza of Avila (1515-1582), the Spanish mystic and saint, and Tereza Sampsonia (1519-1586), an Italian humanist and poet.
Other notable historical figures with the name Tereza include Tereza Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1822-1889), the wife of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, and Tereza Inez Fredro (1825-1855), a Polish countess and writer.
In the 20th century, Tereza Batista (1889-1972) was a Brazilian writer and feminist activist, while Tereza Żarnowerówna (1892-1944) was a Polish World War II resistance fighter who fought against the Nazi occupation.
The name Tereza has also been popularized in literature, with one of the most famous examples being the character Tereza from Milan Kundera's novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (1984).
People
Tereza + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tereza 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
Tereza: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tereza?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 715 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tereza 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 479,377 US residents.
Is Tereza a common name?
We classify Tereza as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 790 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tereza most popular?
The single biggest year for Tereza was 1996, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tereza is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Tereza a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tereza 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.
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.