Klarissa
Feminine · “bright”
Klarissa swaps a C for a K, which is one of the most-used devices in American naming and one of the few that has genuine European backing. German, Polish, Czech and the Scandinavian languages all write this name with a K, because their orthographies use K where Latin used C. So Klarissa is at once an American respelling and a correct Central European spelling. Its peak is 1998.
How old is the name Klarissa?
Klarissa first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Klarissa alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 2,800 people named Klarissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Klarissa most popular?
Klarissa peaked in 1998, reaching #1416 nationally. Today it ranks #5917, 4,501 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Where it comes from
From clarus to Klarissa
The story of Klarissa
Saint Clare of Assisi gave the name its European standing, and the order she founded is the Poor Clares. The elaborated Clarissa was made famous in 1748 by Samuel Richardson's novel, one of the longest in the English language and widely read across Europe. Germany and the Slavic countries write the whole family with K, because C in those languages is either unused or has a different value. In America the K spelling arrives by both routes at once: from families with Central European descent keeping their own orthography, and from families choosing a K because it looks distinctive. The two are indistinguishable on a birth certificate.
Meaning
bright, clear, famous
Latin clarus covers brightness, clarity and renown in one word — the root of clarify, declare and clarion. Clara is the plain feminine; Clarissa is a medieval elaboration formed with an ending that suggests a superlative without strictly being one. The K is orthographic only. German Klara, Polish Klara and Czech Klara are all standard, and Klarissa follows the same convention.
How the name formed
- clarus
- Clara
- Clarissa
- Klarissa
Related forms: Klarissa · Klarysa · Clarissa · Chiara
Pronouncing Klarissa
kluh-RISS-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle, exactly as Clarissa. German says klah-RISS-ah with a fuller first vowel. The K changes nothing about the sound in either language.
Nicknames for Klarissa
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
- 1968
- Most girls named
- 1998121 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1416reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- −25.9%20 in 2025, from 27
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.
Klarissa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Klarissa in German — same name
- Klarysa in Polish — related form
- Clarissa in English — spelling variant
- Chiara in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Arizona.
Klarissas among us
people named Klarissa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 80,363 born in 2025 was named Klarissa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Klarissa
- #5917
- Klarissa on the 2025 chart
- #730
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Klarissa went to 20 girls in 2025, but Clarissa is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 232, which makes it the 730th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,187 places above the chart.
- Clarissa212
- Klarissa20
About 1 girl in 6,928 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 80,363 for Klarissa 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 Clio test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Klarissa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Clio climbed just as high around 1906, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Clio's path sketches the road Klarissa is walking now.
Klarissa 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
Klarissa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Klarissa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The K spelling is genuinely correct in German, Polish and Czech, not merely a respelling.
- Klara and Rissa are both usable short forms with different characters.
- The meaning is settled, positive and expressible in a single word.
- It will be corrected to Clarissa by most American writers.
- Clarissa, Clarisa, Clarisse and Klarissa all circulate as forms of one name.
- The K reads as a modern respelling to Americans and as ordinary to Germans.
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What they receive
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Klarissa
Feminine · #5917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Klarissas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,800 people named Klarissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Klarissa?
- Klarissa is one of 2 recorded spellings. Clarissa is the more common one — 212 births in 2025 against 20 for Klarissa.
- How popular is the name Klarissa in 2025?
- Klarissa ranks #5917 among US girl names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Klarissa?
- About 1 in every 80,363 US girls born in 2025 was named Klarissa — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Klarissa with classmates?
- Klarissa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Klarissa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elda#5917 · Saloma#5917 · Fawn#5917 · Sarafina#5917 · Jaymie#5917 · Jania#5917 · Kimberlynn#5917 · Patsy#5917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Klarissa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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