Lisa
Feminine · “my God is an oath”
Lisa is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 967,229 girls against 2,783 boys since 1880. See Lisa as a boy name
The most famous painting in the world is a portrait of a woman called Lisa. Mona Lisa is not a name but an address — madam Lisa, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant — and the sitter's own name was Lisa del Giocondo, which is why Italians call the picture La Gioconda instead.
How old is the name Lisa?
Lisa first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Lisa alive today was born around 1968, making them about 57 years old. About 889,000 people named Lisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lisa most popular?
Lisa peaked in 1962, reaching #1 nationally. Today it ranks #987, 986 places below that high. See the whole 1962 chart.
Where it comes from
From Elisheva to Lisa
The story of Lisa
It is very rare for a short form to reach the top of a national list on its own, without the long name behind it, and rarer still for it to do so in a country that had barely used it a generation earlier. Lisa was a continental cut — German, Italian and Scandinavian families had been shortening Elisabeth that way for centuries — and English took it late, in the twentieth century, at which point it climbed extraordinarily fast and stayed at the very top for years. Almost none of the American Lisas of that period had an Elisabeth anywhere behind them; the short form had simply become a name.
Meaningscholars disagree
my God is an oath
Cut from Elisabeth, whose Hebrew original is read either as an oath or as abundance. The short form carries the argument without adding to it.
How the name formed
- Elisheva
- Elisabeth
- Lisa
Related forms: Lisa · Lisa · Liisa · Liza · Lisa
Pronouncing Lisa
LEE-suh
Two syllables with the weight at the front. Some American families use LIE-suh, and Russian and German both voice the s to a z.
Nicknames for Lisa
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
- 1886
- Most girls named
- 196656,918 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1reached in 1962
- Change vs 2023
- −19.2%256 in 2025, from 317
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.
Lisa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lisa in Italian — same name
- Lisa in German — same name
- Liisa in Finnish — spelling variant
- Liza in Russian — transliteration
- Lisa in Swedish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Lisas among us
people named Lisa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 6,278 born in 2025 was named Lisa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lisa
- #987
- Lisa on the 2025 chart
- #577
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lisa went to 256 girls in 2025, but Liza, Lyza and Lizah are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 417, which makes it the 577th most-given girls’ name of the year — 410 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,854 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 6,278 for Lisa 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 Linda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lisa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Linda climbed just as high around 1947, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Linda's path sketches the road Lisa is walking now.
Lisa 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 Lisa is headed
Lisa should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Lisa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lisa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is spelled and said the same way across a dozen languages.
- Four letters, two syllables, and no ambiguity in the spelling.
- It works in Italian, German, Scandinavian and English households without adjustment.
- It sits behind one of the largest name families in Europe.
- It is one of the most generation-marked names in the language and will place a person in time.
- The first vowel is unsettled in America between LEE and LIE.
- It reads as a short form to older speakers, who may look for an Elizabeth.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Lisa
Feminine · #987 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lisas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 889,000 people named Lisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lisa?
- Lisa is the most-used spelling in US records — 256 of the 417 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Liza, Lyza and Lizah.
- How popular is the name Lisa in 2025?
- Lisa ranks #987 among US girl names in 2025, with 256 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lisa?
- About 1 in every 6,278 US girls born in 2025 was named Lisa — 256 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lisa with classmates?
- Lisa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lisa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Laken#987 · Adalee#987 · Addilyn#987 · Karter#987 · Akira#983 · Arely#983 · Kamiyah#983 · Skyla#983
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lisa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lisa and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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