Surface transverse wave (STW) resonators exhibit substantial advantages over conventional surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators. However, their analysis is more involved because of the complicated nature of STW. Many parameters have been studied, but the one that has been difficult to analyze accurately is the quality factor Q, which is of great importance for characterizing the devices. At present, none of the available analytical models is concerned with quantitative loss consideration, and the establishment of reliable design rules is difficult. We present a theoretical study that allows one to conduct coupling-of-modes (COM) STW loss analysis and estimate the resonator Q from material and layout parameters. The COM transmission coefficient chi11 is derived by Floquet analysis. Its imaginary part is obtained by numerically fitting available experimental data for the Q-factor of particular resonators. It is a measure of STW propagation loss that adds to the electrode reflection loss. As the overall loss is extremely sensitive to the choice of parameter values, the full numerical search for optimum design presently discussed can save considerable experimental effort.