Alissa
Feminine · “noble kind”
Alissa is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 38,591 girls against 31 boys since 1880.
Alissa is Alyssa with an i, and the parent is either a flower or a truncation of Alice — the registers of the 1970s carry both readings without distinguishing them.
How old is the name Alissa?
Alissa first appears in US birth records in 1948 — 77 years ago. The typical Alissa alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 37,500 people named Alissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alissa most popular?
Alissa peaked in 1979, reaching #236 nationally. Today it ranks #1942, 1,706 places below that high. See the whole 1979 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Adalheidis to Alissa
The story of Alissa
Alice descends from the Germanic Adalheidis by way of French, and Alyssa appears as an elaboration of it in twentieth-century American use — reinforced by the flower name, which carries a genuinely striking etymology. The respellings followed immediately: Alissa, Alisa, Elissa. Alissa peaked in the mid-1980s alongside the double-l form.
Meaningscholars disagree
noble kind; sweet alyssum
Read as a form of Alice, the meaning is the Germanic adalheid, 'noble kind'. Read as the flower alyssum, it is the Greek a-, 'not', and lyssa, 'madness' — the plant was believed to cure rabies, which is where its name comes from. Both readings are current.
How the name formed
- Adalheidis
- Alice
- Alyssa
- Alissa
Related forms: Alyssa · Alisa · Adelheid
Pronouncing Alissa
uh-LISS-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Alissa and Alyssa are said identically.
Nicknames for Alissa
Moderate
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
- 1948
- Most girls named
- 19971,223 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #236reached in 1979
- Change vs 2023
- −19.5%99 in 2025, from 123
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.
Alissa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alyssa in English — spelling variant
- Alisa in English — spelling variant
- Adelheid in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Alissas among us
people named Alissa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 16,235 born in 2025 was named Alissa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Alissa
- #1942
- Alissa on the 2025 chart
- #380
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Alissa went to 99 girls in 2025, but Alyssa and Allyssa are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 784, which makes it the 380th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,562 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 2,050 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 16,235 for Alissa itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Dale test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alissa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dale climbed just as high around 1952, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dale's path sketches the road Alissa is walking now.
Alissa 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
Where Alissa is headed
Alissa should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Alissa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alissa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The alyssum etymology — 'without madness', from a supposed cure for rabies — is genuinely remarkable.
- Alice stands behind it as an alternative parent with a thousand years of use.
- Ali and Lissa are two short forms at very different registers.
- Alyssa is much the commoner spelling and will be assumed.
- The parentage is genuinely split between a flower and a Germanic name.
- It is closely dated to the 1980s and 1990s.
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What they receive
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Alissa
Feminine · #1942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alissas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 37,500 people named Alissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Alissa?
- Alissa is one of 3 recorded spellings. Alyssa is the more common one — 680 births in 2025 against 99 for Alissa.
- How popular is the name Alissa in 2025?
- Alissa ranks #1942 among US girl names in 2025, with 99 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alissa?
- About 1 in every 16,235 US girls born in 2025 was named Alissa — 99 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alissa with classmates?
- Alissa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alissa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Iyanna#1942 · Nahomi#1942 · Aziyah#1942 · Avia#1942 · Nazly#1942 · Kamiya#1942 · Priya#1942 · Kyndall#1942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alissa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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