Theresa
Theresa is a girl's name that peaked in 1961, when it was the 35th most popular in the United States. In 2025 it ranked 1,548th. About 266,000 Theresas are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 62.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Theresa boys named Theresa
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 405,831
- Estimated living today
- 266,000
- Median age today
- 62
- Peak year
- 1961
- Best rank
- 35th
- Rank in 2025
- 1,548th
- First recorded
- 1880
- Girls / boys
- 404,613 / 1,218
How old the living Theresas are
born that year still alive today
Of the 405,831 babies given the name since 1880, about 266,000 are alive — 65 in every hundred. Roughly 3,700 of them are children and 112,000 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1963 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin Ancient Greek
First used in Spain, supposedly derived from Latin Thēra, from Ancient Greek Θήρᾱ, name of a city in Santorini, Greece.
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Theresas
- Theresa May (born 1956)Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2016 to 2019
- Theresa Russell (born 1957)American actress
- Theresa of León (1080–1130)Countess-Queen of Portugal
- Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska (1676–1730)Electress of Bavaria and of the Electorate of the Palatinate
- Theresa Kachindamoto) (1958–2025)paramount chief in Malawi
- Theresa of Portugal (1178–1250)Queen of León
- Thérésa Tallien (1773–1835)Spanish-French courtesans
- Theresa Randle (born 1964)American actress
People named Theresa with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Theresa is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Theresa is most concentrated in Vermont (2.2×), Maine (2.0×), Rhode Island (1.9×), Massachusetts (1.9×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1961
The most popular girls’ names the year Theresa peaked:
Theresa elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria girls | Theresa | 10,779 | 19th |
| France girls | Theresa +2 spellings | 2,285 | 304th |
| Ireland girls | Theresa | 1,965 | 65th |
| England and Wales girls | Theresa | 664 | 604th |
| Scotland girls | Theresa | 504 | 128th |
| Norway girls | Theresa | 238 | 298th |
| Switzerland girls | Theresa | 119 | 471st |
| Belgium girls | Theresa +1 spelling | 20 | 1,123rd |
| Northern Ireland girls | Theresa | 8 | 271st |
| Poland girls | Theresa | 2 birth registrations | 729th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Theresa: births by region
| Region | Country | Spelling | Births | Share of the region | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German girls | Switzerland | Theresa | 112 | 0.009% | 363rd |
| French girls | Switzerland | Theresa | 6 | 0.001% | 577th |
| Italian girls | Switzerland | Theresa | 1 | 0.002% | 191st |
Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.
By canton, Theresa is most concentrated in Zurich, where 0.02% of children were given it – 52 of them.
Theresa by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin girls | 2017–2023 | 164 | 92nd |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Theresa among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland girls | Theresa +1 spelling | 153 | 408 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Where Theresa lives in Spain
Not a count of births but of people: 180 women called Theresa were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.
Women: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zaragoza | Theresa | 9 | 0.018 | 2,302 |
| Balears, Illes | Theresa | 11 | 0.018 | 2,727 |
| Palmas, Las | Theresa | 10 | 0.017 | 3,759 |
| Málaga | Theresa | 14 | 0.015 | 2,653 |
| Santa Cruz de Tenerife | Theresa | 7 | 0.013 | 4,377 |
| Alicante/Alacant | Theresa | 13 | 0.013 | 3,506 |
Listed in 8 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 44 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Related names
Theresa against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.