Larisa
Feminine · “Pre-Greek”
Larissa is a city in Thessaly, and its name is older than the Greek language. The -ss- ending marks a small group of Greek place names — Parnassos, Knossos, Halikarnassos — that were inherited from whatever was spoken in Greece before Greek speakers arrived, and never translated.
How old is the name Larisa?
Larisa first appears in US birth records in 1951 — 74 years ago. The typical Larisa alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 3,300 people named Larisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Larisa most popular?
Larisa peaked in 1968, reaching #1042 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 6,449 places below that high. See the whole 1968 chart.
Where it comes from
From Larissa to Larisa
The story of Larisa
Cities have supplied women's names steadily: Florence, Verona, Alexandria, Odessa, Lydia, Roma. Larissa entered that stock through the Orthodox Church rather than through geography — a fourth-century martyr of that name is commemorated in the Slavic calendars, which is why the name became overwhelmingly Russian and Ukrainian rather than Greek in modern use. Russian Larisa is one of the standard mid-twentieth-century women's names there. The American figures peak in 1968, with the general availability of Slavic names rather than with any single event, and the single-s spelling is the Russian one.
Meaningnot established
Pre-Greek, of unrecovered meaning; sometimes read as "citadel"
Larissa belongs to the class of Greek place names with -ss- and -nth- endings that linguists identify as pre-Greek substrate: words taken over from an earlier language of the Aegean when Greek speakers arrived, whose meanings are lost. Corinth, Zakynthos, Parnassos and Knossos are in the same group. A gloss of citadel or fortress is often repeated for Larissa, based on ancient usage of the word for hill-forts, but it is not securely established.
How the name formed
- Larissa
- Лариса
- Larisa
Related forms: Лариса · Larissa · Λάρισα
Pronouncing Larisa
lah-REE-sah
Three syllables, stress on the second. Russian says the same. English speakers sometimes stress the first syllable, LARR-issa, which is the Greek pattern rather than the Slavic one.
Nicknames for Larisa
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
- 1951
- Most girls named
- 1994104 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1042reached in 1968
- Change vs 2024
- −26.3%14 in 2025, from 19
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.
Larisa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Лариса in Russian — transliteration
- Larissa in English — spelling variant
- Λάρισα in Greek — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Larisas among us
people named Larisa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Larisa
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 Candelaria test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Larisa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Candelaria climbed just as high around 1929, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Candelaria's path sketches the road Larisa is walking now.
Larisa 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
Larisa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Larisa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is settled in Russian, Ukrainian and Greek without being common in English.
- Lara is an immediate and widely recognized short form.
- It is soft, three syllables and easy to say.
- Larissa with two s letters is the more common English spelling.
- The meaning is genuinely unrecoverable, not merely disputed.
- It is often assumed to be a variant of Laura, which it is not.
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What they receive
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Larisa
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Larisas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,300 people named Larisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Larisa in 2025?
- Larisa ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Larisa?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Larisa — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Larisa with classmates?
- Larisa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Larisa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Larisa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Larisa and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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