Anyssa
Feminine · “not madness”
Alyssum is a small white flower whose Greek name is a promise: a for not, lyssa for madness. Sprigs were hung by doorways and given to people bitten by dogs. Alyssa is that flower. Anyssa sits one letter from it and one letter from Anissa, which comes out of Arabic and means something else entirely.
How old is the name Anyssa?
Anyssa first appears in US birth records in 1987 — 38 years ago. The typical Anyssa alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 2,100 people named Anyssa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Anyssa most popular?
Anyssa peaked in 1994, reaching #1259 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 9,658 places below that high. See the whole 1994 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Anyssa
The y is the tell. American spelling has used y for i as a signal for a century — Jazmyn, Madysen, Kaytlyn, Brytany — and where it stands in place of an ordinary i it almost always marks a respelling rather than an older form. Anyssa is that move applied to Anissa, or to Alyssa with the l exchanged for an n. Its two possible parents have nothing in common. Alyssum is Greek botany, named from the belief that the plant cured the bite of a mad dog, and it was an English flower name long before it was a girl's name. Anisah is an Arabic adjective for good company. A name that sits between two sources is not damaged by it; it simply has two histories, and the choosing is done at home.
Meaningscholars disagree
not madness, from the flower — or friendly, from Arabic
Two names lie within a letter of this spelling. Alyssa comes from alyssum, Greek alysson, from a-, not, and lyssa, rage or rabies: a plant named for what it was believed to prevent. Anissa comes from Arabic anisah, friendly. Anyssa can be reached from either, and which one it is belongs to the family rather than to the record.
Pronouncing Anyssa
uh-NISS-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle, with a short i sound despite the y: an English y between consonants normally says i, as in gym and myth. uh-NEE-sah is heard in families who take the Arabic name as the source.
Nicknames for Anyssa
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
- 1987
- Most girls named
- 1994136 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1259reached in 1994
- Change vs 2024
- −33.3%8 in 2025, from 12
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.
Anyssa in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Anyssas among us
people named Anyssa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Anyssa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Anyssa
- #10917
- Anyssa on the 2025 chart
- #899
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Anyssa went to 8 girls in 2025, but Anissa is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 61, which makes it the 899th most-given girls’ name of the year — 10,018 places above the chart.
- Anissa53
- Anyssa8
About 1 girl in 26,349 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 200,908 for Anyssa 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 Noella test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Anyssa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Noella climbed just as high around 1915, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Noella's path sketches the road Anyssa is walking now.
Anyssa 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
Anyssa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Anyssa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The sound is completely familiar even where the spelling is not.
- Nyssa works as a short form and stands alone as a name.
- Both of its possible sources are documented, which most respellings cannot say.
- Anissa and Alyssa are both commoner, and this will be read as a variant of whichever one the reader knows.
- The y buys nothing in sound and costs a correction every time.
- The meaning depends on which parent you claim.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Anyssa
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Anyssas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Anyssa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Anyssa?
- Anyssa is one of 2 recorded spellings. Anissa is the more common one — 53 births in 2025 against 8 for Anyssa.
- How popular is the name Anyssa in 2025?
- Anyssa ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Anyssa?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Anyssa — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Anyssa with classmates?
- Anyssa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Anyssa
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 Anyssa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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