Theresa
Theresa is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 145 births. Its best rank was 32nd, in 1956.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 1450.01% of girls
- Peak year
- 196111,959 births
- Best rank
- #32in 1956
- Since 1880
- 405,689people given the name
The story in the numbers
404,471 girls have been named Theresa in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1961, with 11,959 births — 0.59% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 145 births in 2024, against 11,959 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1957, and the 1960s alone account for 24%. It has spent 131 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 68 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 1,218 boys have also been given it, 0.30% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Theresa | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 2,505 | |
| 1890s | 4,730 | |
| 1900s | 6,396 | |
| 1910s | 18,348 | |
| 1920s | 36,667 | |
| 1930s | 32,785 | |
| 1940s | 35,790 | |
| 1950s | 89,605 | |
| 1960s | 97,115 | |
| 1970s | 40,078 | |
| 1980s | 22,390 | |
| 1990s | 10,591 | |
| 2000s | 4,554 | |
| 2010s | 2,196 | |
| 2020s | 721 |
In 1961, its biggest year
Theresa was the 35th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1961 were Mary, Lisa, Susan, Linda and Karen. See all of 1961.
Names that rose and fell with Theresa
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Monapeak 1957
- Vernitapeak 1961
- Anitapeak 1957
- Theressapeak 1961
- Bernadettepeak 1958
- Benitapeak 1961
- Theresepeak 1959
- Reginapeak 1962
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.