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Tess

#1,794 in 2025Girls' name

Short form of Theresa

Tess has been given to 14,770 babies in the U.S. since 1889. In 2025 it ranked #1,794 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1992, with 529 recorded.

Babies named Tess, 2025

1 in 29,300

Tess over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Tess: meaning, origin, and history

Short form of Theresa

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Tess means

Tess is a short form of Theresa.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Tess → Theresa. The family’s proposed meaning is “summer”, recorded in the naming reference for Theresa.

Origin, language, and formation

Tess is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Theresa and Teresa.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Tess is pronounced /tɛs/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 14,770 girls were recorded with the name Tess between 1889 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 529 in 1992; its best national rank was #467 in 1992.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #1,281 in 2020 to #1,794 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,120 in 2015 to #1,794 in 2025.

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 Tess?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 29,300
113 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 14,200
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#1,794
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
20,337 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Tess 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 2025 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 5002%

Put another way: gather 20,337 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Tess. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Tesss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Tess was born before 1999 — so the typical Tess is around 26 today.

Median birth year
1999
About 26 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
30.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
45.1%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
14,277
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 30.9% of all recorded uses (4,559).

Is Tess 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
−26
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−513
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−674
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.49×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
21.4%
Peak was 1992 (529)
Years since peak
33
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
9.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#467
1992

Spellings of Tess

Tess is not the most common spelling — Tessa is, with 24.3% against Tess's 6.4%.

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.

Where Tess is used

Across 2016–2025, Tess was most concentrated in Utah — about 1 in 2,500 girls, against 1 in 11,949 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in 50,000).

240 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Utah1 in 2,500
  2. 2Massachusetts1 in 2,564
  3. 3Minnesota1 in 5,263
  4. 4Illinois1 in 6,250
  5. 5Wisconsin1 in 6,250
  6. 6New Jersey1 in 6,667
  7. 7New York1 in 8,333
  8. 8Pennsylvania1 in 8,333

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Tess around the world

Where Tess 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.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #2,605
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1992–2024
    #638
    in 2024
  • Northern Ireland
    1997–2025
    #154
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    1990–2025
    #148
    in 2025
  • France
    1968–2025
    #523
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #1,469
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1947–2013
    #536
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Tess

People whose public names include Tess, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Tess by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,794
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 513
Best rank ever
#467
1992
Peak year
1992
529 that year
First recorded
1889
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
14,770
Count in 2025
113

Names similar to Tess

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

TessieBessTessaTesaTeslaTeshaPrincessTesiaJessTessiaEmpressBlessCypressTeshiaTessyHeiressGoddessTessahTesslaAgnessTesneemAiressTessiTesni

Names with a curve like Tess

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Tess, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

KaleyKarlyKarliKailaMarielaTiannaCarlieJanaeCarleyMoriahCarinaCarli

Sibling names for Tess

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

Explore around Tess

Top names of 1992, Tess's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1992Girls' names starting with T