US Popularity Rank: 3202

Origin: Greek

Meaning: To harvest; summer

For a single-syllable name, Tess has plenty of substance and packs a punch. Tess is of Greek origins and a variation of Teresa, Teresia, and Theresa meaning “summer” or "to harvest." Surprisingly, Tess isn’t as popular as you’d think and hovered around just inside the top 1,000 baby names for a good few years. Despite this, Tess has been portrayed through literature and on-screen throughout the decades. In Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, the character of Tess is the moral center of the novel. Actors such as Katharine Hepburn, Julia Roberts, Shirley Maclaine, Melanie Griffiths, Kate Hudson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Cher have all portrayed Tesses on our television and cinema screens.