Holiday Calendar

National Teresa Day

Next celebratedSunday, March 7, 2027

March 7 is the Teresas' day, and there is a long line of them standing behind it. Ring yours, ask who she was named after, and check which spelling is on her paperwork before you order anything engraved.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEMarch 7
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A name day that arrived without an author.

No creator, founding organisation or establishing record has been documented for National Teresa Day. It circulates on holiday listing sites and under the hashtags #NationalTeresaDay and #TeresaDay, always attached to the March 7 date.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday
INTRO

Neither spelling has won in 146 years

National Teresa Day belongs to one spelling of a name that has spent 146 years refusing to pick one. In the complete US federal birth record, 1880 through 2025, Teresa was the more common spelling in exactly 73 years and Theresa in exactly 73, with no ties.

That balance is recent enough to be worth stating carefully. Through 2023 Theresa was ahead, 73 years to 71. The 2024 and 2025 files both went to Teresa and levelled it.

The split has a cost. The Social Security Administration counts spellings, not names, so neither form on its own ever ranked higher than 18th. Added together they would have been the fifth most common girls' name in America in 1963, behind only Lisa, Mary, Susan and Karen.

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ORIGINS

Teresa Day history

INTRODUCTION

The first Teresa in the record was not spelled that way. She was Therasia, the Spanish wife of Saint Paulinus of Nola, and she carried the name in the 4th century.

The name stayed mainly in Spain and Portugal through the Middle Ages. It left Iberia after the 16th century, and one woman is the reason.

CHAPTER 01

The nun who exported the name

Teresa of Avila was a Carmelite reformer and a prolific writer. Pope Gregory XV canonised her on 12 March 1622, alongside Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier.

Her fame carried the name out of Iberia. On 27 September 1970 Paul VI proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church, and Pope Francis has since called her the first woman to become a Doctor of the Church.

CHAPTER 02

The Teresa who was given the name

Mother Teresa was baptised Gonxha Agnes, the youngest of Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu's children. In September 1928, at eighteen, she left home for the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland.

There, the Holy See's own biography records, she received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St Therese of Lisieux. She was called Mother Teresa only from her final vows on 24 May 1937.

CHAPTER 03

A March date with nothing behind it

American parents came to the name in a rush. By 1961 the national files recorded 18,909 Teresas born in a single year, the highest count either spelling has reached.

National Teresa Day has no such record. The earliest archived listing found dates to August 2022, already carrying the March 7 date, and nothing earlier or more official has surfaced.

March 7 matches none of the name's traditional name days. Whoever set it left no explanation, and no source located supplies one.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Teresa of Avila is canonised

Pope Gregory XV canonised the Spanish Carmelite reformer on 12 March, in a ceremony that also made saints of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier.

Gonxha Agnes receives the name

An eighteen-year-old from Skopje joined the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland and there received the name Sister Mary Teresa, after St Therese of Lisieux.

Both spellings reach the top 50

Teresa entered the US top 50 at 42nd and Theresa at 50th, having sat at 52nd and 60th the year before.

Named a Doctor of the Church

Paul VI proclaimed Teresa of Avila a Doctor of the Church on 27 September, a title Pope Francis has said no woman had held before.

The Nobel Peace Prize

Mother Teresa was awarded the prize for her work bringing help to suffering humanity.

Canonised in Saint Peter's Square

Pope Francis canonised Mother Teresa at a Mass on 4 September.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Teresa Day by the Numbers

820,657
US births, both Teresa spellings
21
Straight years Teresa held the top 50
291
US Teresas born in 2025

GOOD TO KNOW

National Teresa Day Around the World

Spain

six separate Teresa name days, running from June 17 through October 15

Italy

two, on October 1 and October 15

Poland

two, on October 3 and the shared October 15

Austria

two, on August 26 and September 5

Finland

one, on April 26, the earliest in the year

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

Teresa means harvester, or summer.

The truth

No reference work settles it. Behind the Name calls the meaning uncertain and lists three candidates: Greek theros for summer, Greek therizo for harvest, and the Greek island of Therasia.

The myth

The name is Greek.

The truth

Only presumably. The reference entry gives the region of origin as Iberia and files the Greek link as a proposed derivation rather than a documented one.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Teresa Day

RECORDS

A name split in two reads smaller than it is.

A name written two ways is filed as two names, so every published ranking understates it by construction. Teresa is the clearest test case there is, because its two forms are almost exactly the same size.

ENDURANCE

Neither spelling has ever disappeared

Both forms appear in every annual file of American birth records from 1880 onward. The name has fallen a long way from its peak without either spelling ever dropping out of the count.

LANGUAGE

Popularity never needed a meaning

Parents chose this name for centuries without any settled account of what it means, and the reference works still disagree. Whatever drives a name's spread, it is plainly not its etymology.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Teresa Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Check which spelling is on the paperwork

The two forms are filed as different names in official records, so an engraving, a certificate or a search result can land on the wrong one. Ask before you order anything with the name on it.

MARK

Mark October 15 as well

Several countries keep a Teresa name day on that date. If your Teresa has family in one of them, she may already be marking it.

READ

Read the Holy See's own account of a famous Teresa

The Vatican publishes its biography of Mother Teresa, free to read. Going to the primary record beats the summaries that circulate about her.

TEST

Test the meaning everyone repeats

Anyone who tells you the name means harvest is quoting one of three competing guesses. Look it up together and see how far the reference works actually commit.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Teresa Day?

1 / 8

Who is the first person recorded bearing this name?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance and no legal recognition for it was located, so it is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

10sources
6primary records
5independently dated
Primary records
US Social Security Administration2025
National baby name data, yob1880 to yob2025
Every US birth registration by name, spelling and year since 1880.
View source
The Holy See2003
Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), biography
The Vatican's account of her baptismal name and the day she received the name Teresa.
View source
The Holy See1970
Proclamazione di Santa Teresa d'Avila Dottore della Chiesa, omelia di Paolo VI
Paul VI's own words proclaiming her a Doctor and dating her canonisation to 1622.
View source
The Nobel Foundation
Mother Teresa, Facts
The 1979 Peace Prize record, with the citation and her birth and death dates.
View source
The Holy See2016
Holy Mass and Canonization of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Pope Francis's homily at the canonisation of 4 September 2016.
View source
Vatican News2021
Pope: St Teresa of Avila shows importance of women in Church and society
Pope Francis marking 50 years since the proclamation and calling her the first woman Doctor.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
Meaning, origin and history of the name Theresa
A reference entry that calls the meaning uncertain and lists three competing derivations.
View source
Behind the Name
Name Days for the name Teresa
The 13 traditional Teresa name days kept in Austria, Finland, Italy, Poland and Spain.
View source
Online Etymology Dictionary
Theresa, etymology, origin and meaning of the name
Traces the name to Latin Therasia and two volcanic islands, and dates its US top-50 run.
View source
Wikipedia
Teresa
Gives the origin as uncertain and presumably Greek, with Iberia as the region of origin.
View source
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