Theresa

Theresa comes from the Spanish and Portuguese Teresa and was first recorded as Therasia, borne by the 4th-century Spanish wife of Saint Paulinus of Nola. Its uncertain origin may lie in Greek words for "summer" or "to harvest," or in Therasia, the western island of Santorini. Once largely confined to medieval Spain and Portugal, it spread through the Christian world after the 16th century through Saint Teresa of Ávila; another notable bearer was Habsburg ruler Maria Theresa (1717–1780), whose inheritance triggered the War of the Austrian Succession.

Theresa rose from #944 to #923 for girls between 2009 and 2010. Its highest annual birth count came in 1961, with 11,960 births.