Theodora vs Therese
American parents have registered 35,595 Thereses since 1880, against 12,703 Theodoras. But in 2025 it was Theodora that was commoner, 384 babies to 79.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Theodora Therese
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 146 years in which either name was published, Therese for 101 years and Theodora for 45 years. The lead changed hands 24 times.
- 1887–1922 Theodora ahead, apart from 3 short spells
- 1923–2010 Therese ahead
- 2011–2025 Theodora ahead
19 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Theodora | Therese | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 12,703 | 35,595 |
| Most in one year | 426 | 1,211 |
| Babies in 2025 | 384 | 79 |
| Estimated living today | 7,700 | 23,000 |
| Median age today | 26 | 64 |
| Peak year | 2022 | 1959 |
| Best rank | 688th girls | 252nd girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 725th | 2,298th |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 12,654 / 49 | 35,590 / 5 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Which name is older
Half of the Thereses alive today are over 64; half the Theodoras are over 26. That is 38 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Theodora New York (3.2×), New Jersey (2.1×), Pennsylvania (1.9×)
- Therese Rhode Island (6.6×), Maine (5.1×), New Hampshire (5.0×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Theodora | Therese |
|---|---|---|
| France | 1,710 | 175,895 Thérèse |
| England and Wales | 1,573 | 113 |
| Ireland | 66 | 1,380 |
| Belgium | 69 | 15 Thérèse |
| Scotland | 43 | 30 |
| Northern Ireland | 3 | 49 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Theodora and Therese.