Allyssa
Feminine
Alyssa has no clear parent. It appears in American records in the twentieth century, resembles Alicia and resembles the flower alyssum, and cannot be traced cleanly to either — which is unusual for a name that became as popular as this one did. Allyssa doubles the l, borrowing the letter from Allison, where the doubling is at least traditional.
How old is the name Allyssa?
Allyssa first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Allyssa alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 6,600 people named Allyssa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Allyssa most popular?
Allyssa peaked in 1998, reaching #659 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 14,283 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Alicia to Allyssa
The story of Allyssa
Alyssa entered American records in the 1930s in tiny numbers, rose slowly, and then became one of the defining girls' names of the 1980s and 1990s. Its ancestry was never settled, which did not slow it down at all. Once a name is that common the spellings multiply, and the doubled l is one of the commonest devices available — English readers see it in Allison, Allen and Ellie, so it looks entirely at home. Allyssa peaked in 1998, right alongside the standard spelling.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Two candidates and no proof. Alicia comes from Alice and the Germanic Adalheidis, noble kind. Alyssum is a Greek plant name meaning against madness — the flower was prescribed for rabies — and it entered English as a garden word. Alyssa may descend from either, or from neither: it may simply have been built from sound in the middle of the twentieth century.
How the name formed
- Alicia
- Alyssa
- Allyssa
Related forms: Alicia · Alysson
Pronouncing Allyssa
uh-LISS-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. The doubled l makes no difference to the sound; Alyssa and Allyssa are said identically.
Nicknames for Allyssa
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
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 1999330 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #659reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%5 in 2025, from 5
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.
Allyssa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alicia in Spanish — related form
- Alysson in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Texas, California.
Allyssas among us
people named Allyssa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Allyssa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Allyssa
- #14942
- Allyssa on the 2025 chart
- #380
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Allyssa went to 5 girls in 2025, but Alyssa and Alissa 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 — 14,562 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 2,050 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 321,453 for Allyssa 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 Gerri test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Allyssa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gerri climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gerri's path sketches the road Allyssa is walking now.
Allyssa 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
Allyssa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Allyssa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three short forms are available and they belong to different registers.
- It is entirely readable on sight and needs no explaining aloud.
- One of its possible origins involves a genuinely surprising piece of ancient medicine.
- Alyssa is much the commoner spelling and will be written instead constantly.
- The doubled l is inaudible, so the letters have to be dictated.
- The name family was very heavily used in one stretch of decades and dates a woman accordingly.
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Allyssa
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Allyssas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,600 people named Allyssa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Allyssa?
- Allyssa is one of 3 recorded spellings. Alyssa is the more common one — 680 births in 2025 against 5 for Allyssa.
- How popular is the name Allyssa in 2025?
- Allyssa ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Allyssa?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Allyssa — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Allyssa with classmates?
- Allyssa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Allyssa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hester#14942 · Lyda#14942 · Zula#14942 · Zona#14942 · Ula#14942 · Belva#14942 · Lucetta#14942 · Leala#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Allyssa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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