Elisa
Feminine · “My God is an oath”
Elisa is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 47,661 girls against 143 boys since 1880.
Elisa is the short, warm-mouthed form that Italian, Spanish and German speakers made out of Elisabeth, and it has been at home in all three languages for centuries. Four syllables of biblical solemnity trimmed to three easy ones, ending on the open -a that Italian and Spanish share. It has been on the American record a long while without ever crowding a classroom.
How old is the name Elisa?
Elisa was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Elisa alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 42,500 people named Elisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elisa most popular?
Elisa peaked in 1981, reaching #311 nationally. Today it ranks #458, 147 places below that high. See the whole 1981 chart.
Elisa appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Elisheva to Elisa
The story of Elisa
The name behind Elisa is Elisheva, borne in the Hebrew Bible by the wife of Aaron. Greek translators of the Hebrew scriptures rendered it Elisabet, and from there Latin Elisabeth spread across Christian Europe, growing a different short form in nearly every language it touched — Isabel in Spain, Elise in France, Elsa in the north, Elisa in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany. Elisa reached the United States with speakers of all those languages and settled in, keeping its spelling intact rather than anglicizing. A separate name, Elissa, belongs to Dido of Carthage in Virgil's Aeneid; it shares the sound but not the ancestry.
Meaning
My God is an oath — that is, a promise sworn by God
Elisa is a shortened form of Elizabeth, from Hebrew Elisheva. The first element is God; the second, shevaʿ, is read as "oath" in the standard rendering, though "abundance" is sometimes offered for the same root.
How the name formed
- Elisheva
- Elisabet
- Elisabeth
- Elisabetta
- Elisa
Related forms: Elisa · Elisa · Élise · Eliza · Elise · Elsa
Pronouncing Elisa
eh-LEE-sah
English speakers often soften it to ih-LEE-suh. In Italian and much of German usage the s is voiced, closer to eh-LEE-zah. All are accepted; a family usually just picks one and repeats it.
Nicknames for Elisa
High
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 1981775 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #311reached in 1981
- Change vs 2022
- −12.7%674 in 2025, from 772
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.
Elisa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Elisa in Italian — same name
- Elisa in Spanish — same name
- Élise in French — related form
- Eliza in English — related form
- Elise in German — related form
- Elsa in Swedish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Elisas among us
people named Elisa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,385 born in 2025 was named Elisa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Elisa
- #458
- Elisa on the 2025 chart
- #93
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Elisa went to 674 girls in 2025, but Eliza, Elyza and Elizah are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 3,154, which makes it the 93rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 365 places above the chart.
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 510 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 2,385 for Elisa 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 Kathi test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Elisa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kathi climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kathi's path sketches the road Elisa is walking now.
Elisa 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
Where Elisa is headed
Elisa should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Elisa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elisa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the same in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German, so it crosses borders without needing to be adapted or re-spelled.
- Comes with ready-made short forms — Lisa, Ellie, Eli, Isa — none of which had to be invented.
- Traces an unbroken line back through Elisabeth to the Hebrew Elisheva, one of the oldest continuously used names in Europe.
- Five letters, all pronounced, with no silent or doubled letters to explain.
- Familiar enough that nobody asks what it is, uncommon enough that a child is unlikely to share it in class.
- It lives in a crowded street: Elise, Eliza, Elissa, Alisa and Alyssa all sound close, and people will guess wrong. Expect to spell it over the phone fairly often.
- The stressed vowel shifts by language — eh-LEE-sah, ih-LEE-suh, eh-LEE-zah — so the same child may hear her name three ways in a bilingual family or on a trip abroad.
- Lisa, the most natural short form, is strongly represented among older generations, and some families would rather steer toward Ellie or Isa instead.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Elisa to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Elisa
Feminine · #458 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elisas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 42,500 people named Elisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Elisa?
- Elisa is one of 4 recorded spellings. Eliza is the more common one — 2,370 births in 2025 against 674 for Elisa.
- How popular is the name Elisa in 2025?
- Elisa ranks #458 among US girl names in 2025, with 674 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elisa?
- About 1 in every 2,385 US girls born in 2025 was named Elisa — 674 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elisa with classmates?
- Elisa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elisa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kataleya#458 · Wynter#456 · Clementine#456 · Alicia#460 · Elle#461 · Helen#461 · Carter#454 · Madeleine#454
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elisa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elisa and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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