Teira
A feminine name of unknown origin meaning "bright" or "radiant".
Name Census estimates that about 280 living Americans carry the first name Teira. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Teira today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Teira births was 1990 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Teira. 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 Teira with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
280
~ 1 in 1,224,123 Americans
Peak year
1990
30 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2009 SSA rank
#12,361
Tracked since 1977
Census
Teira in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 286 people with the first name Teira, which placed it at #30,451 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
#30,451
National first-name rank
People counted
286
286 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
61.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Teira
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Teira is Black at 61.5%. The next largest groups are White (21.3%) and Two or More Races (7.7%). 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 Teira 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 Teira at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American61.5% · 176
- White21.3% · 61
- Two or more races7.7% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino6.6% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.1% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 2
Popularity
Teira: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Teira from the 1970s through to the 2000s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 141 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Teira 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 Teira during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Teiras live
Origin
Meaning and history of Teira
The name Teira is believed to have its origins in the Basque region of Spain and France. It is a feminine name that is derived from the Basque word "tei," which means "lime tree" or "linden tree." The name is thought to have been used as a given name in this region as early as the 12th century.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Teira can be found in a medieval Basque manuscript from the 13th century. This document includes a list of names, and Teira is listed among them. It is possible that the name was given to girls born near or under a lime tree, as this was a common practice in many cultures at the time.
In the 14th century, there are records of a Basque woman named Teira Garcés de Huarte, who was a noblewoman from the Navarre region of Spain. She is mentioned in several historical documents from that time period, indicating that the name was in use among the nobility as well as commoners.
During the Renaissance period, the name Teira appeared in several literary works, including a play by the Spanish writer Lope de Vega. In his play "El Mejor Alcalde, el Rey" (The Best Mayor, the King), one of the characters is named Teira, suggesting that the name was still in use in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Another notable figure with the name Teira was Teira Izquierdo, a Spanish painter who lived in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. She was known for her religious paintings and worked in the Baroque style. Her works can be found in several churches and museums in Spain.
In more recent history, Teira Palma was a Cuban painter and artist who lived from 1904 to 1986. She was known for her vibrant and colorful paintings that depicted scenes from everyday life in Cuba. Her works are part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in Havana.
While the name Teira is not as common today as it once was, it has a rich history and cultural significance in the Basque region of Spain and France. Its connection to the lime tree and its use among various social classes and professions throughout history make it a unique and interesting name with a fascinating backstory.
People
Teira + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Teira 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
Teira: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Teira?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 280 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Teira 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 1,224,123 US residents.
Is Teira a common name?
We classify Teira as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 292 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Teira most popular?
The single biggest year for Teira was 1990, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Teira is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Teira in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 286 people with the name Teira, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,451 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 Teira 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 Teira?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Teira appears almost entirely female. Of the 290 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Teira?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Teira is Black at 61.5%. The next largest groups are White (21.3%) and Two or More Races (7.7%). 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 Teira most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Teira in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.5% (176 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 Teira in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Teira a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Teira 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 Teira still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Teira 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 Teira 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 are named Teira?
Find out how many Americans are named Teira on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.