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Tera vs Terri

American parents have registered 147,027 Terris since 1880, against 9,918 Teras. Terri is still ahead, with 19 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Tera against Terri, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Tera Terri

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 131 years in which either name was published, Terri for 97 years and Tera for 34 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Tera Terri
Total US births 9,918147,027
Most in one year 4168,810
Babies in 2025 under 519
Estimated living today 9,200127,000
Median age today 4462
Peak year 19841959
Best rank 486th girls46th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked6,116th
First recorded 18851922
Girls / boys 9,918 / 0146,113 / 914

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Terris alive today are over 62; half the Teras are over 44. That is 18 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Tera and Terri.