Tereza
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "harvester."
Name Census estimates that about 715 living Americans carry the first name Tereza. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tereza today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tereza births was 1996 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tereza. 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 Tereza with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
715
~ 1 in 479,377 Americans
Peak year
1996
22 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,888
Tracked since 1929
Census
Tereza in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,021 people with the first name Tereza, which placed it at #7,521 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
#7,521
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
2,021 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
45.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tereza
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tereza is White at 45.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (42.9%) and Black (6.4%). 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 Tereza 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 Tereza at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White45.8% · 925
- Hispanic or Latino42.9% · 868
- Black or African American6.4% · 130
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 59
- Two or more races1.8% · 36
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 3
Popularity
Tereza: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tereza from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 148 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Tereza remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tereza 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 Tereza during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Terezas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tereza
The name Tereza is derived from the Greek name Theresia, which is the feminine form of Theresios, meaning "harvester" or "reaper." It is related to the Greek word "theros," meaning summer or harvest. The name first gained popularity in the 4th century BCE among Greek-speaking populations in the Mediterranean region.
Tereza was a widely used name in ancient Greece and Rome, appearing in various historical records and literary works from that time period. One of the earliest known references comes from the writings of the Greek philosopher Plato, who mentioned a woman named Tereza in his dialogues.
During the Middle Ages, the name Tereza became closely associated with Christianity, particularly through the veneration of Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), a Spanish mystic and reformer of the Carmelite Order. Her life and teachings influenced the spread of the name across Europe.
In the Renaissance period, the name Tereza gained prominence among the nobility and upper classes, notably with Tereza of Avila (1515-1582), the Spanish mystic and saint, and Tereza Sampsonia (1519-1586), an Italian humanist and poet.
Other notable historical figures with the name Tereza include Tereza Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1822-1889), the wife of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, and Tereza Inez Fredro (1825-1855), a Polish countess and writer.
In the 20th century, Tereza Batista (1889-1972) was a Brazilian writer and feminist activist, while Tereza Żarnowerówna (1892-1944) was a Polish World War II resistance fighter who fought against the Nazi occupation.
The name Tereza has also been popularized in literature, with one of the most famous examples being the character Tereza from Milan Kundera's novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (1984).
People
Tereza + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tereza 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
Tereza: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tereza?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 715 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tereza 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 479,377 US residents.
Is Tereza a common name?
We classify Tereza as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 790 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tereza most popular?
The single biggest year for Tereza was 1996, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tereza is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tereza in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,021 people with the name Tereza, or 0.67 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,521 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 Tereza 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 Tereza?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tereza appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,011 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Tereza?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tereza is White at 45.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (42.9%) and Black (6.4%). 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 Tereza most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tereza in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.8% (925 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 Tereza in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tereza a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tereza 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 Tereza still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tereza 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 Tereza 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 called Tereza?
You can see how many people share the name Tereza on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.