Jalissa
Feminine
Jalissa is thirty years older than most people assume. The Ja- prefix is usually associated with the 2000s — Jayla, Jaida, Jaelyn — but it was already productive in the 1970s and 1980s, and Jalissa belongs to that earlier wave. Its American peak is 1988, which puts it with Jamila, Jamela and Jalisa rather than with the names it superficially resembles.
How old is the name Jalissa?
Jalissa first appears in US birth records in 1985 — 40 years ago. The typical Jalissa alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 3,500 people named Jalissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jalissa most popular?
Jalissa peaked in 1988, reaching #967 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 4,755 places below that high. See the whole 1988 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From melissa to Jalissa
Our story of Jalissa
The 1980s Ja- names worked differently from the 2000s ones, and Jalissa shows how. In the later wave, Ja- was combined mostly with short, freely-invented endings — -yla, -ida, -elyn — that had no independent life as names. In the earlier wave, the prefix was attached to whole existing names: Ja plus Lissa, Ja plus Nelle, Ja plus Mila. The result is a compound where the second half is still visibly a name, which gives it a more traditional shape and a ready-made nickname. That difference matters when you meet the name today. Jalissa does not sound like a 2005 coinage because it is not built like one, and the Lissa inside it is doing real work: it is why the name has three clear syllables, why it takes stress in the middle, and why it has always been easy for strangers to say.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No documented meaning for the whole. The second element is recognizably Lissa, a short form of Melissa, which is genuine Greek — melissa is the ordinary Greek word for a honeybee, and it was the name of a nymph in the Demeter stories. The Ja- prefix carries nothing lexical. So the name has one half with a real etymology and one half with none, and the join is American. That is an accurate description and a more useful one than any invented gloss.
How the name formed
- melissa
- Melissa
- Lissa
- Jalissa
Related forms: Jalisa · Jalyssa
Pronouncing Jalissa
juh-LISS-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle, with a clean double s. There is no competing saying, which is unusual for a name of this construction and is a direct consequence of the recognizable second half.
Nicknames for Jalissa
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
- 1985
- Most girls named
- 1988172 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #967reached in 1988
- Change vs 2024
- −34.4%21 in 2025, from 32
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.
Jalissa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jalisa in English — spelling variant
- Jalyssa in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, California.
Jalissas among us
people named Jalissa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Jalissa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jalissa
- #5722
- Jalissa on the 2025 chart
- #922
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jalissa went to 21 girls in 2025, but Jalyssa is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 38, which makes it the 922nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,800 places above the chart.
- Jalissa21
- Jalyssa17
About 1 girl in 42,297 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 76,537 for Jalissa 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 Jenniffer test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jalissa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jenniffer climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jenniffer's path sketches the road Jalissa is walking now.
Jalissa 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
Jalissa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jalissa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The pronunciation is unambiguous, which most invented names cannot claim.
- Lissa is a genuine name available as a short form.
- It is distinctive without being difficult for anyone to say or spell after one hearing.
- Jalisa with one s is equally common and hers will be written that way.
- The name's curve is firmly 1980s, which places a bearer's generation.
- There is no established meaning for the compound as a whole.
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Jalissa
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jalissas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,500 people named Jalissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jalissa?
- Jalissa is the most-used spelling in US records — 21 of the 38 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Jalyssa.
- How popular is the name Jalissa in 2025?
- Jalissa ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jalissa?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Jalissa — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jalissa with classmates?
- Jalissa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jalissa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jalissa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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