Teresa vs Terry
American parents have registered 521,478 Terrys since 1880, against 417,209 Teresas. But in 2025 it was Teresa that was commoner, 291 babies to 202.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Teresa Terry
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 146 years in which either name was published, Teresa for 92 years and Terry for 54 years. The lead changed hands 16 times.
- 1880–1933 Teresa ahead
- 1934–1959 Terry ahead
- 1960–1976 Teresa ahead
- 1984–1998 Terry ahead
- 2002–2004 Teresa ahead
- 2005–2014 Terry ahead, apart from one short spell
- 2015–2025 Teresa ahead
9 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Teresa | Terry | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 417,209 | 521,478 |
| Most in one year | 18,949 | 20,939 |
| Babies in 2025 | 291 | 202 |
| Estimated living today | 341,000 | 379,000 |
| Median age today | 62 | 65 |
| Peak year | 1961 | 1957 |
| Best rank | 18th girls | 33rd boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 908th | 1,115th |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 416,044 / 1,165 | 96,955 / 424,523 |
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 Terrys alive today are over 65; half the Teresas are over 62. That is 3 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Teresa Tennessee (1.7×), West Virginia (1.6×), North Carolina (1.6×)
- Terry Tennessee (1.7×), West Virginia (1.7×), South Dakota (1.7×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Teresa | Terry |
|---|---|---|
| France | 1,895 | 3,680 |
| Ireland | 4,817 | 313 |
| New Zealand | 2,294 | 860 |
| England and Wales | 792 | 1,173 |
| Scotland | 403 | 472 |
| Belgium | 52 | 85 |
| Northern Ireland | 33 | 22 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Teresa and Terry.