Meanings
- A female given name from Ancient Greek, variant of Teresa.
"Theresa,", he said. "I never cared for that name." Justine nodded, chewing. "I don't like difficult names. I don't like foreignness." "Perhaps they're Catholic," Justine said.
1976, Anne Tyler, Searching for Caleb, Berkley Books, New York, published 1983, →ISBN, page 72 more examples
"Theresa!" exclaimed the stranger, "is your name Theresa?" asked she, a death-like paleness at the same time overspreading her countenance. "Is this name so frightful to you?" enquired the recluse. "Frightful!" rejoined the stranger, "O, no, I venerate it, like the name of a saint. I had once an unknown friend, whose name was Theresa.
1810, Tales of real life: forming a sequel to miss Edgeworth's Tales of fashionable life, volume 1, London: Henry Colburn, page 72“What this work shows is that masculinity is not just an ideology that men strive to achieve. It’s something we value as a culture,” said lead author Theresa Vescio, a professor of psychology and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Pennsylvania State University.
2021 January 9, Sandee LaMotte, “Valuing male dominance may predict support for Trump, study says”, in CNN - A place in the United States:
- A town and village therein, in Jefferson County, New York.
- A town and village therein, in Dodge County, Wisconsin.
Origin
- Ancient GreekΘήρᾱ
- LatinThēra
- EnglishTheresa
First used in Spain, supposedly derived from Latin Thēra, from Ancient Greek Θήρᾱ (Thḗrā), name of a city in Santorini, Greece.
More words from Latin, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
Theresa. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Theresa
“Theresa.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Theresa. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Theresa,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Theresa.
Source: Theresa on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.