Thecla

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Girl · Ancient Greek

Thecla

Say it: THEK-luh

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Greek Theokleia, 'glory of God' (theos 'god' and kleos 'glory').

Likelythe main view, with some doubt.

Widely venerated in the East and once common in Poland, Sweden and Russia.

Its wave through time

Rare in the records

In the United States

281 babies given this name since 1888
At its height in 1895, about 1 in 33,400 girls
Fewer than 5 babies a year in 2020

Through the ages

Used by

Early Christian Ancient Greek Greek German Polish Swedish Russian Italian

The family of the name

Other spellings: Tecla, Tekla, Thekla

French	Thècle
Spanish	Tecla
Italian	Tecla
German	Thekla
Polish	Tekla
Swedish	Tekla
Russian	Fyokla
Greek	Thekla

Famous bearers

Thecla of Iconium, companion of Paul in the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla

Names worth a look

ParaskeviGirlGreek paraskeuē, 'preparation', the Greek name for Friday, the day of preparation before the Sabbath.Early Medieval

FortunataGirlLatin fortunata 'fortunate, lucky'.Rome · forgotten

AfraGirlLatin, 'African woman'.Rome · forgotten

PriscaGirlLatin, feminine of Priscus, 'ancient, old'.Biblical

MacrinaGirlLatin, from the Roman name Macrinus, ultimately from Greek makros 'long'.Rome · forgotten

KyriakiGirlFrom Greek kyriakē 'of the Lord', the Greek word for Sunday.Early Medieval

Where this comes from

The Apocrypha and other early religious writings
Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
Calendars of saints and name days
United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.