Tess
- Pronunciation
- [Tess]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Abbreviation Of Teresa Which Is A Popular Saint's Name Of Uncertain Meaning.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Tess
Tess is a short form of Theresa (Teresa), a saint's name of uncertain ancient meaning sometimes linked to the Greek for "to harvest" or to the island of Therasia. Standing entirely on its own, Tess has the appeal of a clean, single-syllable name — crisp, unfussy, and quietly literary, with a gentle vintage warmth and the streamlined confidence of a name that needs nothing added to feel complete.
That spare elegance is central to its charm. Tess reads as both modern and timeless, the kind of pared-down name that pairs beautifully with longer surnames and feels effortlessly chic without trying. Recorded variants include Tessa, the fuller and more lyrical form, and Tessie, the affectionate diminutive, giving the name room to soften or formalize as a family prefers.
Tess first entered the US Social Security top-1000 for girls in 2000, with its best showing in that opening year of 2000 at rank #551. It was last recorded in 2013 at #999, having stood at #921 as recently as 2011, and accumulated 5,151 girls across that run. That slim, understated profile suits the name perfectly: its quiet, classic appeal has kept it in gentle but persistent use rather than ever crowding the charts — a single, polished syllable that never tries too hard and never quite goes out of fashion.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Tess
US Popularity History (2000–2013)
Annual US births named Tess by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2003 with 494 girls named Tess (girl rank #566 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2013, ranked #999 for girls (251 US births). That's 433 places below its 2003 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Tess Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Tess the strongest states are Massachusetts, Utah, New Jersey.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | #554 | 89 |
| 2 | Utah | #558 | 67 |
| 3 | New Jersey | #803 | 38 |
| 4 | Wisconsin | #851 | 35 |
| 5 | Minnesota | #865 | 30 |
| 6 | Illinois | #958 | 43 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illinois | #958 | 43 |
| 2 | Minnesota | #865 | 30 |
| 3 | Wisconsin | #851 | 35 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #803 | 38 |
| 5 | Utah | #558 | 67 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | #554 | 89 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Tess in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Tess?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Tess to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Tess against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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