Lisha
Feminine · “noble kind”
Alisha arrived in American naming from two directions at once, which is why it is impossible to say what it means. One road runs from Alice, through Alicia; the other from the Arabic Aisha. They met in the middle of the twentieth century and produced a family of spellings. Lisha is that family with the first letter gone, and the sh in the middle is a sound English names almost never carry.
How old is the name Lisha?
Lisha first appears in US birth records in 1954 — 71 years ago. The typical Lisha alive today was born around 1971, making them about 54 years old. About 2,200 people named Lisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lisha most popular?
Lisha peaked in 1960, reaching #597 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 12,611 places below that high. See the whole 1960 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Alicia to Lisha
The story of Lisha
English has very few native names with a sh in the middle — the sound arrived late and mostly in borrowings — so a name carrying one reads as modern almost automatically. Alicia and Aisha both supplied it, and American naming built a large family on the sound from the 1950s onward: Alisha, Elisha, Lisha, Nisha, Delisha. This spelling appears in the record from the mid-1950s and peaked quickly, which is the profile of a name that spread by hearing rather than by inheritance.
Meaningscholars disagree
noble kind, or living
If the name descends from Alicia, the line runs to Alice and the Germanic Adalheidis, noble kind. If it descends from Aisha, the Arabic means living or alive. Both were in American use when this spelling appeared, and there is no way to assign a particular child to either. A third possibility is that it is simply Delisha or Elisha with the front removed.
How the name formed
- Alicia
- Alisha
- Lisha
Related forms: Aisha · Alicia
Pronouncing Lisha
LEE-shuh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Some families say LISH-uh with a short first vowel; both are heard, and the spelling does not settle it.
Nicknames for Lisha
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
- 1954
- Most girls named
- 1961231 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #597reached in 1960
- Change vs 2023
- −14.3%6 in 2025, 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.
Lisha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aisha in Arabic — related form
- Alicia in Spanish — related form
Lishas among us
people named Lisha are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Lisha
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 Romona test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lisha's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Romona climbed just as high around 1928, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Romona's path sketches the road Lisha is walking now.
Lisha 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
Lisha beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lisha in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Five letters, two syllables, and easy in any accent.
- The sh in the middle is genuinely uncommon in English names, which makes it distinctive.
- Both possible origins are respectable and old.
- Alisha, Lesha and Leisha all sit close by and will be written instead.
- The first vowel is unsettled, so the name arrives two ways.
- Its meaning cannot be given flatly, since two unrelated traditions meet in it.
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What they receive
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Lisha
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lishas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Lisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lisha in 2025?
- Lisha ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lisha?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Lisha — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lisha with classmates?
- Lisha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lisha
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lisha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lisha and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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