Charissa
Feminine · “grace”
Greek charis is grace in the sense of a gift freely given, and it built more English words than almost any other Greek noun: charity, charisma, eucharist. Spenser turned it into a person. In The Faerie Queene the three sisters of the House of Holiness are Fidelia, Speranza and Charissa — faith, hope and love.
How old is the name Charissa?
Charissa first appears in US birth records in 1949 — 76 years ago. The typical Charissa alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 4,900 people named Charissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Charissa most popular?
Charissa peaked in 1980, reaching #778 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 10,139 places below that high. See the whole 1980 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From charis to Charissa
The story of Charissa
Charis was a word before it was a name: the quality of giving without being owed, which is why Greek used it for a favor, for gratitude and for physical grace all at once. The Charites, three goddesses of it, were among the oldest figures in the Greek pantheon. Spenser gave the word a Latinate ending and made Charissa a character in 1590, personifying the third of the theological virtues, and English readers took her name off the page as they took Pamela and Vanessa off other pages. It was used quietly for centuries and then more widely in the twentieth, without ever becoming ordinary.
Meaning
grace, favor, a gift freely given
From Greek charis, grace or kindness, and its derived forms. Charisma is a gift of grace; eucharistia is thanksgiving, eu- plus charis; charity reaches English through the Latin caritas but was long used to translate the same Greek idea. The Graces of Greek myth were the Charites.
How the name formed
- charis
- Charissa
Related forms: Charis · Chara
Pronouncing Charissa
kuh-RISS-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. The ch is a k in Greek, as in chorus and character. Many American families say shuh-RISS-uh instead, on the pattern of Charlotte and Charlene, and both sayings are in real use.
Nicknames for Charissa
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
- 1949
- Most girls named
- 1980212 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #778reached in 1980
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%8 in 2025, from 8
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.
Charissa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Charis in Greek — related form
- Chara in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Charissas among us
people named Charissa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Charissa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Karren test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Charissa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Karren climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Karren's path sketches the road Charissa is walking now.
Charissa 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
Charissa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Charissa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Greek meaning with a large family of English words to point at.
- A literary origin that can be looked up rather than asserted.
- Rissa works as a short form and stands alone.
- The ch has two pronunciations in American use, and the name does not settle which.
- Carissa, Karissa and Charisa are all in use, so the spelling needs giving.
- It is regularly heard as Clarissa, which is a different name from a Latin root meaning bright.
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What they receive
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Charissa
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Charissas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,900 people named Charissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Charissa in 2025?
- Charissa ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Charissa?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Charissa — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Charissa with classmates?
- Charissa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Charissa
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 Charissa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Charissa and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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