Marisela
Feminine
Marisela is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 10,309 girls against 29 boys since 1880.
Marisela is a Latin American compound, and it has a novel behind it: a Venezuelan writer used the name for a central character in a book published in 1929 that became one of the most-read works in the Spanish-speaking world, and the name spread with it through Venezuela, Mexico and beyond.
How old is the name Marisela?
Marisela first appears in US birth records in 1945 — 80 years ago. The typical Marisela alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 9,900 people named Marisela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marisela most popular?
Marisela peaked in 1985, reaching #494 nationally. Today it ranks #4987, 4,493 places below that high. See the whole 1985 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Marisela
Spanish naming has been building compounds on Maria for centuries, and this one caught a novel. In the book Marisela is the wild girl of the plains who is taught to read and remade, and readers across Latin America took to her; the name followed, especially in Venezuela and Mexico, and became ordinary in the middle of the twentieth century. What it inherits is not an etymology but a story with a very precise date, which is a better inheritance than most compound names get.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The compound is not documented as a word. Maria and a second element, most likely Isela or Estela, were joined; Estela is Spanish for a star, from Latin stella. But the join was made by an author or by families, not by a language, and no source records a meaning for the whole.
Pronouncing Marisela
mah-ree-SEH-lah
Four syllables, stress on the third, all vowels open. Spanish and English speakers alike manage it easily.
Nicknames for Marisela
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
- 1945
- Most girls named
- 1985410 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #494reached in 1985
- Change vs 2023
- −27.8%26 in 2025, from 36
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.
Marisela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maricela in Spanish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New Mexico.
Mariselas among us
people named Marisela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 61,818 born in 2025 was named Marisela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Marisela
- #4987
- Marisela on the 2025 chart
- #844
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Marisela went to 26 girls in 2025, but Maricela, Maricella and Marisella are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 116, which makes it the 844th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,143 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 13,856 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 61,818 for Marisela 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 Darleen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marisela's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Darleen climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Darleen's path sketches the road Marisela is walking now.
Marisela 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 Marisela is headed
Marisela 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.
Marisela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marisela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It offers several short forms, Mari and Sela and Chela, each with its own register.
- The rhythm is even and open, which makes it easy in both Spanish and English.
- It carries a documented novel and a date, which very few compound names do.
- Marisela and Maricela are both standard, so records within a family may differ.
- Four syllables is long for American forms and gets clipped without being asked.
- It has no meaning of its own, only a source, which is worth telling a curious child plainly.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Marisela
Feminine · #4987 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mariselas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,900 people named Marisela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Marisela?
- Marisela is one of 4 recorded spellings. Maricela is the more common one — 64 births in 2025 against 26 for Marisela.
- How popular is the name Marisela in 2025?
- Marisela ranks #4987 among US girl names in 2025, with 26 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marisela?
- About 1 in every 61,818 US girls born in 2025 was named Marisela — 26 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marisela with classmates?
- Marisela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marisela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Perri#4987 · Giannina#4987 · Karisma#4987 · Zuleyka#4987 · Mccall#4987 · Makinley#4987 · Jayani#4987 · Mela#4987
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marisela? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marisela and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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