Tessa
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "harvester" or "reaper".
Name Census estimates that about 53,199 living Americans carry the first name Tessa. It sits at #303 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tessa today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tessa births was 2007 (1,753 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tessa. 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 Tessa with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
53K
~ 1 in 6,443 Americans
Peak year
2007
1,753 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2004 SSA rank
#303
Tracked since 1891
Census
Tessa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 47,462 people with the first name Tessa, which placed it at #941 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
#941
National first-name rank
People counted
47K
47,462 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
15.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tessa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tessa is White at 81.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.1%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Tessa 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 Tessa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.7% · 38,786
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 3,392
- Two or more races5.2% · 2,456
- Black or African American3.0% · 1,425
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 1,018
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 385
Gender
Gender distribution for Tessa
Out of the 54,949 babies given the name Tessa since 1880, 100.0% 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.
Tessa as a male name
- Ranked #8,837 in 2004
- 8 male births in 2004
- Peak: 2004 (8 births)
Tessa as a female name
- Ranked #303 in 2024
- 1,034 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (1,753 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tessa appears almost entirely female. Of the 47,455 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Tessa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tessa from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 13,878 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Tessa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tessa 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 Tessa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tessas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Tessa, while Hawaii, Delaware, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,030 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tessa
The name Tessa is a variant of the Greek name Theresa, which itself is derived from the Greek island of Thera. The name Theresa gained popularity in the Christian tradition as it was associated with St. Teresa of Avila, a Spanish nun and mystic who lived in the 16th century.
Tessa is believed to have originated as a diminutive form of Theresa, with the earliest recorded use dating back to the late 18th century in England. The name Tessa was particularly popular among the English aristocracy and upper classes during this time period.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Tessa was Tessa Constantia Phillippa Garnier, born in 1786 in England. She was a member of the British aristocracy and married into the prominent Chute family.
Another notable historical figure named Tessa was Tessa Millett, an English painter and illustrator who lived from 1900 to 1994. She was known for her vibrant landscape paintings and illustrations for children's books.
In the literary world, Tessa is the name of a character in the novel "The Go-Between" by L.P. Hartley, published in 1953. The book explores themes of innocence and class divides in Edwardian England.
Tessa Beauchamp was a British actress and singer who appeared in several films and television shows in the mid-20th century. She was born in 1920 and passed away in 2002.
Tessa Worsley was a British author and historian who specialized in the study of Georgian society and architecture. She was born in 1923 and passed away in 2003, leaving behind a significant body of work on 18th-century British culture.
As a variant of the name Theresa, Tessa has maintained a strong connection to its Greek and Christian roots while also developing its own distinct identity over the centuries.
People
Tessa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tessa 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
Tessa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tessa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 53,199 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tessa 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 6,443 US residents.
Is Tessa a common name?
We classify Tessa as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 54,949 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tessa most popular?
The single biggest year for Tessa was 2007, when 1,753 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tessa is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tessa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 47,462 people with the name Tessa, or 15.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #941 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 Tessa 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 Tessa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tessa appears almost entirely female. Of the 47,455 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 Tessa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tessa is White at 81.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.1%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Tessa most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tessa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.7% (38,786 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 Tessa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tessa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tessa 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 Tessa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tessa 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 Tessa 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 share the name Tessa?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.