Tekla

Girls' name

God exalted/praised

Tekla has been given to 461 babies in the U.S. since 1889. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1916, with 16 recorded.

Babies named Tekla, 2022

1 in 484,000

Tekla over time, 1880–2025

Girls

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Tekla: meaning, origin, and history

God exalted/praised

Ancient Greek

What Tekla means

Tekla means “God exalted/praised”, associated with Theokleía.

Origin, language, and formation

Tekla is used in Faroese, Finnish, Latvian, Polish and Swedish. Its origins include Ancient Greek.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Thecla.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Tekla is pronounced /ˈteklɑ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 461 girls were recorded with the name Tekla between 1889 and 2022. Its highest annual count was 16 in 1916; its best national rank was #1,131 in 1889.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Tekla?

Tekla had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2022, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2022: 1 in 484,000; 7 of 3,385,755 births
Among girls only: 1 in 234,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 2022: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 335,262 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Tekla sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2022 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%

Class of 30Under 1%

Grade of 100Under 1%

School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 335,262 children born in 2022 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Tekla. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Teklas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Tekla was born before 1942 — so the typical Tekla is around 83 today.

Median birth year: 1942; About 83 years old
Biggest decade: 1910s; 22.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 12.4%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 193; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1910s — 22.3% of all recorded uses (103).

Is Tekla rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1916 (16)
Years since peak: 109; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 28.3% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,131; 1889

Spellings of Tekla

Tekla is not the most common spelling — Ella is, with 30.2% against Tekla's 0.04%.

Ella30.2%351,313
Stella17.8%206,906
Bella7.2%83,721
Della6.1%70,810
Tessa4.8%55,926
Leila4.8%55,436
Eula4.1%47,159
Lela3.7%43,005

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Tekla around the world

Where Tekla ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

France
1923–2006
#5,704
in 2006
South Australia
1971–1971
#724
in 1971

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Tekla by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #1,131; 1889
Peak year: 1916; 16 that year
First recorded: 1889
Last recorded: 2022
All-time count: 461
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Tekla

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Tekia Tekoa Teka Tekisha Tekela Tekeya Tekesha Thekla Okla Teckla Tekila Tekira Tekeyah Tekeisha Kla Tekelia Tekayla Tekeshia Tekara Tekera Tekiyah Tekoah Tekeema Tekeria

Sibling names for Tekla

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Era Leatha Leone Artie Alpha Hettie Cecil Ona

For a brother

Winfield Dorsey Isadore Aloysius Hyman Regis Sydney Meyer

Explore around Tekla

Top names of 1916, Tekla's peak year The 1910s in full Other names that peaked in 1889 Girls' names starting with T