Lisa
Masculine · “my God is an oath”
Lisa is given to girls far more often — 967,229 girls against 2,783 boys since 1880. See Lisa as a girl 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 1952 — 73 years ago. The typical Lisa alive today was born around 1969, making them about 56 years old. About 2,400 people named Lisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lisa most popular?
Lisa peaked in 1965, reaching #575 nationally. See the whole 1965 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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
- 1952
- Most boys named
- 1965177 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #575reached in 1965
- Change vs 1996
- 0.0%7 in 2000, from 7
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
Lisas among us
people named Lisa are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Lisa sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
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.
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What they receive
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Lisa
Masculine
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 2,400 people named Lisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lisa in 2025?
- Lisa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Lisa with classmates?
- Lisa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Larry#1084 · Lawrence#518 · Louis#249 · Logan#53 · Liam#1 · Lucas#10 · Luke#33 · Leonard#637
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lisa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lisa and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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