Tessa
Barely a hundred Polish women carry it, so most people here have never met one. From Greek, the name points to the harvest, to gathering in the crop.
Tessa Pronunciation
What Tessa means
Where Tessa comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Tessa begins in Greek. The name grew in English as a short form of Theresa, and the oldest root scholars reach for is the Greek verb therizo, to harvest. From that comes the plain sense the name still holds: harvester, the one who gathers the crop.
By the late nineteenth century Tess and Tessa were common enough in England to stand on their own. Thomas Hardy gave the form to the heroine of Tess of the d'Urbervilles in 1891, a farming girl bound to the fields and the turning seasons. Few names meet their meaning so squarely.
On a Polish class register today, Tessa reads as clearly foreign. It has an English sound and a Greek spine, and it belongs to no Polish name-day. What sits underneath does not change. It means one thing: the harvest, żniwo.
How many people are named Tessa
1 in 210690 women in Poland is named Tessa. 107 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3305 among female names.
Tessa's popularity over time
3 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #1369 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2022.
Where Tessa is most popular
Tessa is most popular in Lesser Poland, 852% above the national average (2 girls born 2019–2025).
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Lesser Poland2 girls born+852%
Tessa as a middle name
Tessa is a first name for 107 women in Poland and a middle name for another 27, an 80/20 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1389th, between Tamar (27) and Ula (27).
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#1387 Stenia27
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#1388 Tamar27
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#1389 Tessa27
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#1390 Ula27
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#1391 Valentyna27