Tess
Barely 40 people in Poland carry it, so most Poles have never met a Tess. Greek at root, tied to the harvest and to summer.
Tess Pronunciation
What Tess means
Where Tess comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Tess grew up as the short form of Theresa, and its roots reach back to Greek. Scholars link Theresa to "theros," the word for summer, and to the verb for reaping grain. That gives Tess its plain meaning: harvester, and the warmth of summer. The harvest sat there first.
English readers know the name from Thomas Hardy. His 1891 novel "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" put a farm worker named Tess Durbeyfield at the center of English literature. The book tied the name to fieldwork and the countryside, which suits a word about reaping.
Short, level, easy to call across a room. Tess needs no ceremony.
On a Polish class register the name reads clean, four letters, no trouble with spelling. A child called Tess answers to summer and to the harvest.
How many people are named Tess
1 in 549850 women in Poland is named Tess. 41 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #6081 among female names.
Tess's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been climbing since 2025.
Tess as a middle name
Tess is a first name for 41 women in Poland and a middle name for another 17, a 71/29 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1808th, between Tarsylia (17) and Thảo (17).
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#1806 Tanya17
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#1807 Tarsylia17
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#1808 Tess17
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#1809 Thảo17
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#1810 Virginie17