Tessa
given name · Latin script
Meaning: From Teresa; also used as an independent name; 'the harvester or reaper'
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈtɛsə/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Tessa is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- NLNetherlands≈1 in 1.5K(inferred from the name graph)
- BEBelgium≈1 in 5.7K
- AUAustralia≈1 in 6K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 454 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.5K (inferred from the name graph)
47,455 people, 2020
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Netherlands, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
From Teresa; also used as an independent name; 'the harvester or reaper'
Sources 1
- Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
Attested across 14 languages in the etymology graph.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Tessa, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Tessa counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | — | 47,455 | 1 in 7K | 47K | Tessa | 454 |
| NL Netherlands | #191 | ≈11,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.5K | 15K | Tessa | 115 |
| GB United Kingdom | #839 | ≈5,300 est. | ≈1 in 12K | 16 | Tessa | 217 |
| ZA South Africa | — | ≈4,700 est. | ≈1 in 12K | — | Tessa | 81 |
| AU Australia | #685 | ≈4,300 est. | ≈1 in 6K | 8 | Tessa | 193 |
| BE Belgium | #846 | ≈2,000 est. | ≈1 in 5.7K | 33 | Tessa | 78 |
| FI Finland | — | 1,064 | 1 in 5.2K | 1.1K | Tessa | 19 |
| GY Guyana | — | 287 | 1 in 2.6K | 287 | — | 4 |
47,455 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM); Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017); Statbel — Prénoms nouveau-nés (newborns); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Tessa is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Now generally considered to be a pet form of Theresa, although often used independently. However, the formation is not clear, and it may be of distinct origin. Literary contexts of the late 19th century show that the name was thought of as Italian, although it is in fact unknown in Italy. Short form: Tess.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In English, A diminutive of the female given name Teresa, from Ancient Greek.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
English: this name and its shortened form Tess are generally considered to be pet forms of THERESA , although now often used independently. However, the formation is not clear, and Tessa may be of distinct origin. Literary contexts of the late 19th century show that the name was thought of as Italian, although it is in fact unknown in Italy. Pet form: Tessie .
as a word
In Finnish, a diminutive of the female given name Teresa
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Italian, inflection of tessere:
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Charlotte Ramplingb. 1946GBnot in their usual nameBritish actress (born 1946)
- Tessa Sandersonb. 1956GBBritish javelin thrower (born 1956)
- Tessa Peake-Jonesb. 1957GBEnglish actress
- Tessa Dahlb. 1957GBBritish writer and actress
- Tessa Rossb. 1961GBEnglish film producer
- Tessa Thompsonb. 1983USAmerican actress
- Tessa Ferrerb. 1986USAmerican actress (born 1986)
- Tessa Virtueb. 1989CACanadian ice dancer
- Tessa Blanchardb. 1995USAmerican professional wrestler
- Tessa Albertsonb. 1996USAmerican actor and television actor
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 102 sources across 55 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 47K | #941 |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017) | — | 15K | #254 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 1.1K | #747 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 1.1K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 978 | — |
| GY Guyana | Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025 | 2025 | 287 | #321 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 45 | #941 |
| BE Belgium | Statbel — Prénoms nouveau-nés (newborns) | 2024 | 33 | #284 |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 2016 | 8 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2004 | 8 | — |
Reference works 6
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Cognomix.it (Nomix s.r.l.) — Italian surname origin dictionary
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What are other forms of the name Tessa?
- In the etymology graph, Teresa, Terry and Theresa are forms of the same name in other languages.
- Is Tessa a male or female name?
- Tessa is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What does the name Tessa mean, and where does it come from?
- From Teresa; also used as an independent name; 'the harvester or reaper' Recorded by Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular….
- How do you pronounce Tessa?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈtɛsə/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Tessa have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 47 thousand people named Tessa, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled tessa.
- How common is the name Tessa?
- In the United States, the national register counted 47,455 people named Tessa in 2020, about 1 in 7.0 thousand residents.
- How common is Tessa compared with other names?
- In the Netherlands, Tessa is the 191st most common given name of 101,916 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Tessa?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/tessaThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Tessa” — the 191st most common given name in Netherlands. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.