Annissa
Feminine · “Close companion”
Annissa can be reached from two directions. It is Anna with an ending on it, in the ordinary American way; and it is also very close to Anisa, an Arabic word for a close companion that has been a real name for centuries. The record does not choose between them.
How old is the name Annissa?
Annissa first appears in US birth records in 1967 — 58 years ago. The typical Annissa alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 1,100 people named Annissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Annissa most popular?
Annissa peaked in 1971, reaching #1625 nationally. See the whole 1971 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Anna to Annissa
The story of Annissa
The Arabic root is one of the more thoughtful in the language. It carries the sense of being sociable, of becoming familiar with something, and of the comfort of another person's presence; the word for a human being is built on it, on the reasoning that what distinguishes people is that they keep each other company. A name from that root says something quite specific about what a person is for. The American name that lands on the same letters was assembled from a familiar front and a fashionable ending in the nineteen-sixties, and the two histories have nothing to do with each other except that they arrived at the same seven letters.
Meaningscholars disagree
Close companion
The Arabic anisa means friendly, sociable, the person whose company keeps loneliness off, and it is built on a root about human companionship that also gives the word for a human being. If instead the name is Anna plus an ending, the meaning belongs to the Hebrew word about favor. Both readings are available and the spelling settles neither.
How the name formed
- Anna
- Anissa
- Annissa
Related forms: Anisa
Pronouncing Annissa
uh-NISS-uh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The doubled s keeps it unvoiced, which matters: a single s between vowels would be read as a z and produce a different name.
Nicknames for Annissa
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
- 1967
- Most girls named
- 199361 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1625reached in 1971
- Change vs 2017
- −28.6%5 in 2019, from 7
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.
Annissa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Anisa in Arabic — related form
Annissas among us
people named Annissa 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
Annissa 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
- Two short forms with nothing in common, one soft and one brisk.
- The rhythm is easy and every sound is available to an English speaker.
- It has a genuine Arabic counterpart, so it travels further than most American builds.
- Anissa with one n is commoner, so spelling it out is likely.
- Two possible origins means two possible meanings and no way to choose.
- It is closely dated to the middle of the last century in American records.
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Annissa
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Annissas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Annissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Annissa in 2025?
- Annissa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Annissa with classmates?
- Annissa 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 Annissa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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