Theresa
given name · Latin script
Meaning: A female given name from Ancient Greek, variant of Teresa
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Theresa is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Czechia it is the 28th most common given name.
- IEIreland≈1 in 670(inferred from the name graph)
- NGNigeria≈1 in 1.2K
- CZCzechia1 in 64as Tereza
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Theresa itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #311 (measured from records)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 587 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 670 (inferred from the name graph)
402,455 named Teresa, 2020
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Teresa in PL Poland, ES Spain, EC Ecuador and Tereza in CZ Czechia.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A female given name from Ancient Greek, variant of Teresa.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Theresa counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #140 | 402,455as Teresa | 1 in 827 | 402K | Theresa | 587 |
| PL Poland | #31 | 312,053as Teresa | 1 in 123 | 312K | Teresa | 163 |
| NG Nigeria | #270 | ≈170,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.2K | listed | Theresa | 95 |
| CZ Czechia | #28 | 167,384as Tereza | 1 in 64 | 167K | Tereza | 175 |
| BR Brazil | — | 161,966as Tereza | 1 in 1.3K | 220K | — | 3 |
| ES Spain | — | 99,940as Teresa | 1 in 500 | 108K | Teresa | 68 |
| SE Sweden | #663 | 36,255as Therese | 1 in 281 | 36K | Theresa | 65 |
| EC Ecuador | — | 34,656as Teresa | 1 in 488 | 35K | Teresa | 10 |
| IE Ireland | #104 | ≈7,700 est. | ≈1 in 670 | — | Theresa | 118 |
402,455 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020, counting the spelling teresa. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; dane.gov.pl — PESEL given names (first + second name position, 2026-01-20); dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names); IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); IBGE — Nomes (census name API); MVČR — living population register 2017; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); INEC — civil registry names. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Joan Leslieb. 1925USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (1925-2015)
- Mary Higgins Clarkb. 1927USnot in their usual nameAmerican author of suspense novels (1927–2020)
- Theresa Saldanab. 1954USAmerican actress (1954–2016)
- Theresa Mayb. 1956GBPrime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2016 to 2019
- Theresa Russellb. 1957USAmerican actress
- Theresa Rebeckb. 1958USwriter, playwright, novelist
- Anne Donovanb. 1961USnot in their usual nameAmerican basketball player and coach (1961–2018)
- Terry Farrellb. 1963USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress and model (born 1963)
- Theresa Randleb. 1964USAmerican actress
- Donna Airb. 1979GBnot in their usual nameEnglish actress, television presenter, and media personality
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 98 sources across 52 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 279K | #192 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 1.7K | #1,179 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 1.3K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 1.3K | #6,860 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 1.3K | #7,899 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 712 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 230 | #192 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 180 | #9,799 |
| ES Spain | INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 175 | #4,527 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 136 | — |
| CZ Czechia | MVČR — living population register 2017 | — | 120 | #1,221 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 101 | #1,559 |
Reference works 3
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Theresa mean, and where does it come from?
- A female given name from Ancient Greek, variant of Teresa. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does Theresa have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 402 thousand people named Teresa, more than in any other country we hold.
- What are other forms of the name Theresa?
- In the etymology graph, Teresa, Terri and Teresita are forms of the same name in other languages; Terry, Tess and Tessie are recorded short or pet forms.
- Is Theresa a male or female name?
- Theresa is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- How common is the name Theresa?
- In the United States, the national register counted 402,455 people named Teresa in 2020, about 1 in 827 residents.
- How common is Theresa compared with other names?
- In the United States, Theresa is the 140th most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Theresa?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/theresaThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Theresa” — the 140th most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.