Alyssah
Feminine
Alyssah adds a silent h to the end of a name that has no Hebrew behind it at all, borrowing a transliteration device from a completely different tradition. The Greek word buried in the middle of it named a personified force the Greeks took seriously enough to put on stage.
How old is the name Alyssah?
Alyssah first appears in US birth records in 1993 — 32 years ago. The typical Alyssah alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 700 people named Alyssah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alyssah most popular?
Alyssah peaked in 2002, reaching #3196 nationally. See the whole 2002 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Alyssah
The Greeks personified rabid madness as a goddess, and she has a speaking part. In Euripides she arrives at Heracles' house with the messenger of the gods, is told to drive him insane, and — remarkably — argues against it: she says the man has done nothing to deserve it, that she takes no pleasure in the work, and that she is being made to act against her own judgment. She is overruled and does it anyway, and Heracles kills his wife and children in the fit. The scene is one of the strangest in Greek drama, because the instrument of the catastrophe is the only character on stage who objects to it. Her name is the ordinary Greek word for the madness that affects dogs, and it is the word sitting inside the name of a small garden flower that was once thought to cure it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Two accounts compete: a respelling of Alice, and a name taken from the flower alyssum. Neither is documented for the modern name, which appeared in the twentieth century, and the terminal h here comes from a spelling habit borrowed from Hebrew names and has nothing to do with either.
Pronouncing Alyssah
uh-LISS-uh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The final h is completely silent and the y is read as a short i, so neither of the two unusual letters changes anything.
Nicknames for Alyssah
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
- 1993
- Most girls named
- 200244 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3196reached in 2002
- Change vs 2022
- −11.1%8 in 2023, from 9
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.
Alyssahs among us
people named Alyssah are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Alyssah sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Middle stress on three syllables is the most comfortable rhythm English has.
- Lyssa and Aly both detach and sound quite different from each other.
- The sound is entirely familiar and needs no teaching.
- Alyssa, Alissa and Alisa are all far commoner and will be written for it.
- The terminal h is silent, so the spelling must be given aloud every time.
- The name's origin is genuinely open, so the meaning question has two answers and no evidence.
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Alyssah
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Alyssahs 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 Alyssah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Alyssah in 2025?
- Alyssah is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Alyssah with classmates?
- Alyssah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anna#107 · Ashley#164 · Amanda#493 · Amy#257 · Angela#408 · Alice#65 · Ann#1076 · Andrea#235
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alyssah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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