I’ve still got St. Therese on my mind, three days after her feast day! 🌹
In July I asked for feedback regarding T(h)eresa for my Sibling Project, and at the time I wasn’t 100% sure whether I would do an entry for Therese or not. Ultimately I decided that I think Therese is different enough in style/feel that it needs its own entry, so here’s its post — we’ll see if I’m right!
As with Theresa, I actually don’t think Therese’s entry in the Baby Name Wizard is that far off:
Girls: Marianne, Louise, Bernadette, Nadine, Helene, Patrice
Boys: Gerard, Roland, Laurence, Claude, Armand, Jerome
I fully agree with the French feel and/or saintliness of Marianne, Louise, Bernadette, Gerard, and Jerome. But I do think the entry could use some tweaking, as I think I’m correct in saying that most of the families I see that have a Theresa variant use Therese, and not a lot of families use names like Nadine, Patrice, Claude, and Roland. The SSA data shows that overall Therese is “a bit downbeat” as Laura put it in the BNW — it’s fallen hard from its most recent peak at No. 252 in 1959 (it had a higher peak at No. 220 in 1927 before falling and rising again. I’m going out on a not-very-shaky limb and say that its 1927 peak was entirely due to our sweet St. Therese, who was beatified in 1923 and canonized in 1925).
But it hasn’t been in the top 1000 since 1984!
So tell me about all the little Thereses you know! (“Little”=15 years old or younger.) How do they pronounce their name? Do they go by a nickname? What are their siblings’ names?
And beyond real-life examples, what names (for girls and boys) do you think are style matches for Therese?