Elyssa
Feminine
Elissa was the queen who founded Carthage. Greek and Roman writers call her Elissa and Dido interchangeably, and the story of how she bought as much land as an ox-hide would cover, then cut the hide into a single thread, is one of the oldest founding legends in the Mediterranean. Elyssa is the modern respelling.
How old is the name Elyssa?
Elyssa first appears in US birth records in 1954 — 71 years ago. The typical Elyssa alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 7,200 people named Elyssa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elyssa most popular?
Elyssa peaked in 1998, reaching #800 nationally. Today it ranks #4987, 4,187 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Elishat to Elyssa
The story of Elyssa
The Phoenician queen who left Tyre and founded Carthage is called Elissa in the Greek historians and Dido in the Latin poets, and Virgil gave her the version everyone knows, in which she meets Aeneas and does not survive him. The name stayed in literary use and returned as a given name in the twentieth century. In American records it meets Alyssa, a modern name of separate origin, and the two spellings have been trading letters ever since.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Two roads. Elissa is Phoenician, generally connected to Elishat, a name built on the word for a god, and the meaning is not recoverable. Separately, the modern Elyssa is often a respelling of Alyssa, which comes from the flower alyssum or from Alice. Which applies depends entirely on the family.
How the name formed
- Elishat
- Elissa
- Elyssa
Related forms: Elissa · Elissa · Ἔλισσα
Pronouncing Elyssa
ih-LISS-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Elissa, Elyssa and Alyssa are said almost identically in American English.
Nicknames for Elyssa
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
- 1954
- Most girls named
- 2004273 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #800reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- −46.9%26 in 2025, from 49
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.
Elyssa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Elissa in English — spelling variant
- Elissa in Italian — same name
- Ἔλισσα in Greek — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Elyssas among us
people named Elyssa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 61,818 born in 2025 was named Elyssa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Elyssa
- #4987
- Elyssa on the 2025 chart
- #826
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Elyssa went to 26 girls in 2025, but Elissa is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 134, which makes it the 826th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,161 places above the chart.
- Elissa108
- Elyssa26
About 1 girl in 11,995 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 61,818 for Elyssa 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 Herlinda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Elyssa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Herlinda climbed just as high around 1952, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Herlinda's path sketches the road Elyssa is walking now.
Elyssa 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 Elyssa is headed
Elyssa is easing off slowly — about 15% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium 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.
Elyssa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elyssa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries a documented founding queen with one of the best stories in ancient history.
- Ellie is a ready short form and instantly familiar.
- The rhythm is soft and even, which sits well against short surnames.
- Alyssa, Elissa and Elyssa are near-homophones and will be written for one another.
- Its two possible histories are unrelated, so the meaning depends on the family.
- The Phoenician original's meaning is not recoverable, so answers found online are guesses.
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What they receive
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Elyssa
Feminine · #4987 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elyssas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,200 people named Elyssa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Elyssa?
- Elyssa is one of 2 recorded spellings. Elissa is the more common one — 108 births in 2025 against 26 for Elyssa.
- How popular is the name Elyssa in 2025?
- Elyssa ranks #4987 among US girl names in 2025, with 26 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elyssa?
- About 1 in every 61,818 US girls born in 2025 was named Elyssa — 26 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elyssa with classmates?
- Elyssa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elyssa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Perri#4987 · Giannina#4987 · Karisma#4987 · Zuleyka#4987 · Mccall#4987 · Makinley#4987 · Jayani#4987 · Mela#4987
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elyssa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elyssa and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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