Terje

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Terje is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Russian given name377 records spelled Terje4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, Estonia, Russia

  Languages: Russian, Ukrainian

  Also written Терье

• Hungarian given name215 records spelled Terje2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway

  Also written Tria

34 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Terje is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Swedish, Terje är en yngre norsk dialektal form av Torgeir, ett nordiskt namn, fornvästnordiskt Þorgeirr, sammansatt av → Tor- och → -ger. Terje kan också vara ett estniskt kvinnonamn.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In German, männl. Vom. norwegischer Herkunft, jüngere Form von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• Norwegian: vernacular form of Torgeir (see TORGER ).

  as a word

• In efi, honour

  as a word·Efik language

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

NO SSB — Navn (1880–present) — 77 years between 1945–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Hariton Pushwagnerb. 1940NOnot in their usual nameNorwegian artist (1940-2018)
• Terje Rød-Larsenb. 1947NONorwegian diplomat
• Terje Rypdalb. 1947NONorwegian jazz guitarist and composer
• Jonas Fjeldb. 1952NOnot in their usual nameNorwegian musician
• Dag Terje Andersenb. 1957NONorwegian politician
• Terje Haugeb. 1965NONorwegian football referee
• Terje Langlib. 1965NONorwegian cross-country skier
• Terje Aaslandb. 1965NONorwegian politician
• Terje Håkonsenb. 1974NONorwegian snowboarder
• Todd Terjeb. 1981NONorwegian DJ, songwriter, and record producer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 209 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Terje?

We estimate roughly 20 thousand people bear Terje (counting its spellings and scripts) across 8 countries in our records.

In which country does Terje have the most bearers?

We estimate about 19 thousand people bear Terje in Norway, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled terje.

Where is Terje most common?

Terje is densest in Norway, where the national register counts about 1 in 288 people carrying it.

How common is Terje compared with other names?

In Norway, Terje is the 16th most common given name of 38,312 given names recorded there.

Is Terje a male or female name?

Terje is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Terje mean?

Recorded meaning: a male given name from Old Norse, variant of Torgeir