Therese
Meaning
meaning uncertain (possibly from the Greek island Therasia)
Name day: October 1 in the Roman calendar of saints (Saint Thérèse of Lisieux).
The story
Therese is the French road to Teresa, and it belongs above all to one short life: Thérèse of Lisieux, the Norman girl who entered Carmel at fifteen, died of tuberculosis at twenty-four in 1897, and left behind a memoir, The Story of a Soul, that made her one of the most loved saints of the modern era. Her 'little way', holiness practiced in small unglamorous acts, reached millions; she was canonized in 1925, and her feast is kept on October 1. American parents heard it: Therese shows its best decade in the 1950s, the height of the midcentury Catholic classroom, before easing back to the quiet, steady presence it holds today. It is a name that has never needed volume. The whole point of the little way is that small things, done with full attention, are the ones that carry.
Therese around the world
One shared root links 6 names across 3 languages.
Shared root: of uncertain origin; traditionally tied to Greek therizein "to harvest" or to the island of Therasia
The constellation
More branches
Sources list Therese among the forms of Theresa (English · German · Danish · Norwegian · Swedish).
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Therese peaked in the 1950s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
55 people · the #62,400 first name in Brazil · median age 65
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Therese
Most people given the name Therese in the United States were born between 1950 and 1979. The Therese you meet today is most often in her 50s or 60s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Therese deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Therese truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Therese fits with your family’s names and surname.
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