Tracy comes from a Norman surname taken from the French town of Tracy-sur-Mer, whose name means "place of Thracius", and it is also used as a short form of Theresa. Grace Kelly's character Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story helped turn it into a girls' name, and it was a top 10 choice in the United States around 1970. Tracy ranked number 706 in 2000, left the top 1000 in the years after and stands at number 2171 in 2025.