Tessa

Where Tessa comes from

Contraction of Teresa.
— Wiktionary's entry for Tessa
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1891
    First appearance
    #1,213 among girls, 6 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1983
    Tessa Thompson born
    American actress
  3. 1989
    Tessa Virtue born
    Canadian ice dancer
  4. 2007
    Peak, #190
    1,753 babies named Tessa — more than any year before or since.
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the female given name Teresa, from Ancient Greek.
Namesakes
  • Tessa Thompson · American actress, born 1983
  • Tessa Virtue · Canadian ice dancer, born 1989
  • Tessa Sanderson · British javelin thrower, born 1956
  • Tessa Jowell · British politician, 1947–2018
  • Tessa Worley · French alpine skier, born 1989

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.