Carisa
Feminine · “dear”
Carissima is how a Latin letter ends: dearest, the superlative, the most affectionate form the language has. Carisa is that word with a consonant taken out, and taking it out removes the grammar along with the letter — a single s is not a superlative in any language.
How old is the name Carisa?
Carisa first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Carisa alive today was born around 1979, making them about 46 years old. About 2,900 people named Carisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carisa most popular?
Carisa peaked in 1977, reaching #758 nationally. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From carus to Carisa
The story of Carisa
Italian inherited the word intact and uses it constantly: cara for the ordinary form, carissima for the emphatic one, both of them everyday address rather than literary. English took the sound without the system. What arrived in American records in the middle of the twentieth century was a name that looked Italian, sounded pleasant and had lost the grammatical machinery that made it mean anything specific. Carisa, Carissa, Charissa and Karisa are the results, and only one of them is spelled the way Latin would require.
Meaningscholars disagree
dear
The Latin carus means dear and its superlative is carissimus. A name spelled with two s letters can claim the superlative; one spelled with a single s can only claim the plain adjective, and the distinction is real in Latin even if nobody hears it in English.
How the name formed
- carus
- carissima
- Carisa
Related forms: Carissima · Carisa
Pronouncing Carisa
kuh-RISS-uh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. The single s is still said as a hiss rather than a buzz, which English spelling does not guarantee.
Nicknames for Carisa
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
- 1958
- Most girls named
- 1978194 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #758reached in 1977
- Change vs 2019
- −44.4%5 in 2021, 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.
Carisa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carissima in Italian — related form
- Carisa in Spanish — same name
Carisas among us
people named Carisa 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
Carisa 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
- The stress in the middle gives it a lift most English names of its length do not have.
- The meaning is warm, simple and easy to explain.
- Both short forms are usable and stand alone as names.
- Carissa is the commoner spelling and will be written instead.
- The single s invites a z sound that the name does not want.
- It reads as a name of the second half of the twentieth century.
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Carisa
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Carisas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Carisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Carisa in 2025?
- Carisa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Carisa with classmates?
- Carisa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carisa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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