Aissa
Feminine · “living”
Across the Sahel — Senegal, Mali, Niger, Chad — Aissa is one of the names a woman is most likely to carry. It is Aisha, arrived by way of the Wolof, Fulani and Hausa-speaking countries and written by French rules, with two dots over the i telling you to say both vowels separately.
How old is the name Aissa?
Aissa first appears in US birth records in 1961 — 64 years ago. The typical Aissa alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 700 people named Aissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aissa most popular?
Aissa peaked in 1992, reaching #2275 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 8,642 places below that high. See the whole 1992 chart.
Where it comes from
From Aisha to Aissa
The story of Aissa
Arabic names crossed the Sahara with trade and with Islam, and every language they reached reshaped them. Aisha became Aicha in the Maghreb, Aissa and Aissatou in Wolof and Fulani-speaking West Africa, Aishatu in Hausa. When those countries were administered in French, the names were written in French orthography, and French uses a diaeresis — the two dots — to stop a reader running two vowels together: without them, ai says a single flat vowel. American paperwork has no field for the dots, so they come off in the crossing, and the instruction they carried is lost with them.
Meaning
living, alive
The West African form of Arabic Aisha, from a root meaning to live. It was the name of one of the Prophet Muhammad's wives, which is why it traveled everywhere Islam did.
How the name formed
- Aisha
- Aicha
- Aissa
Related forms: Aisha · Aissa · Aissatou · Aishatu · Ayse
Pronouncing Aissa
ah-EE-sah
Three syllables, the middle one stressed. The two dots in the French spelling exist to stop a reader saying ai as one sound; once they are dropped, English speakers reach for AY-sah, which is a different name.
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1961
- Most girls named
- 198928 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2275reached in 1992
- Change vs 2024
- −42.9%8 in 2025, from 14
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Aissa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aisha in Arabic — same name
- Aissa in French — spelling variant
- Aissatou in Wolof — related form
- Aishatu in Hausa — related form
- Ayse in Turkish — same name
Aissas among us
people named Aissa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Aissa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Edelmira test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aissa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Edelmira climbed just as high around 1933, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Edelmira's path sketches the road Aissa is walking now.
Aissa sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Aissa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aissa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning and an unbroken record in Arabic going back to the seventh century.
- One of the most widely used women's names between Senegal and Chad.
- Three open syllables that work in French, Spanish and English mouths without adjustment.
- Without the diaeresis Americans will say AY-sah, and correcting it becomes a small lifelong task.
- Issa, which looks like a short form of it, is the Arabic name for Jesus and is given to men.
- Aisha is the spelling most Americans know, so this one will be treated as a variant of it.
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What they receive
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Aissa
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aissas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Aissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Aissa in 2025?
- Aissa ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aissa?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Aissa — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aissa with classmates?
- Aissa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aissa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aissa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aissa and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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