Masterpiece Generator Name Generator
How popular is the name Tessa?
Births per year, rank history and how many Tessas are alive today.
Tessa (female) is an uncommon girls' name in England and Wales, ranked 667th in 2025 with 56 babies given the name. The name peaked in 1996, when 78 babies were given the name, the 410th most popular that year. It was almost as popular in 2012, with 77 babies given the name that year. Its fortunes dipped to rank 855 in 2017 before climbing back to the 667th place it holds today. Numbers have been falling in recent years. Common short forms of Tessa include Tess and Terri. Tessa is also a common short form of Teresa, so many people called Tessa are registered under the longer name.
The Tessa you are most likely to meet is around 30 years old - or else around 13: the name has two living generations. Half of all Tessas born in England and Wales are between 11 and 30, and there are at least 2,300 of them alive today. If you walk into a room of 100 females, there's less than a 1% chance that anyone will be called Tessa - on average, only one in every 137 such rooms contains a Tessa.
How many babies are named Tessa each year?
Where does Tessa rank among girls' names?
Where this data comes from
Figures from 1996 onwards are the Office for National Statistics' annual baby-name registrations for England and Wales, which record every name given to three or more babies in a year. Figures before 1996 are estimates: the ONS published only top-100 rankings at ten-year intervals back to 1904, so counts for those years are modelled from the rankings, calibrated against Douglas Galbi's long-run research into English name frequencies, and shown with an uncertainty band. Estimates of living bearers combine these birth figures with national life tables and ONS mid-year population estimates.
One limit worth naming: these figures count names as registered at birth. Anyone who changes their name later in life - including trans people, and anyone who adopts a different name by deed poll or simply by use - is not reflected here. Birth registrations record where a name began, not the name a person lives with.
Common questions
When was the name Tessa most popular?
Tessa peaked in 1996, when 78 babies in England and Wales were given the name.
How many people are called Tessa?
At least 2,300 people named Tessa born in England and Wales are alive today.
How old is the typical Tessa?
Most living Tessas are between 11 and 30; the most common age is about 30. There is a second cluster around 13.
Is Tessa becoming more or less popular?
Declining: numbers have been falling in recent years.