Marlisa
Feminine
Marlisa is built from two free pieces, as a great many American names of its period were, and the record does not say which Mar and which Lisa were in the family's mind. Its first syllable is also a working English word for a kind of earth.
How old is the name Marlisa?
Marlisa first appears in US birth records in 1957 — 68 years ago. The typical Marlisa alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 800 people named Marlisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marlisa most popular?
Marlisa peaked in 1964, reaching #2530 nationally. See the whole 1964 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Marlisa
Marl is a clay with a lot of lime in it, and for most of English agricultural history the way to improve a sour field was to dig marl out of a pit and spread it. The practice is recorded from the Roman writers onward and was still going in the nineteenth century; the word marling meant exactly this work, and a good many English fields still have the flooded pits the marl came out of, now full of water and ducks. It was hard, unglamorous, enormously effective, and it is the reason a lot of otherwise poor land in England grew anything. Marlisa has no documented connection to it. But the syllable is a real word for the thing that made a field worth farming.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Maria, Marlene and Marilyn have all been suggested for the front, and the back is plainly Lisa, itself a short form of Elisabeth. Nothing documents which combination was intended, and for names of this build there often was no single intention.
Pronouncing Marlisa
mar-LEE-suh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. The single s between vowels is said as a z.
Nicknames for Marlisa
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
- 1957
- Most girls named
- 198928 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2530reached in 1964
- Change vs 2012
- +16.7%7 in 2021, from 6
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.
Marlisas among us
people named Marlisa 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
Marlisa 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
- Lisa comes off the back of it as a short form and needs no explaining anywhere.
- The spelling tells an English reader how to say it, which many built names fail to do.
- Three syllables with a strong middle stress carry well and are easy to remember.
- It will be written Marlissa and Marliza by people working from sound alone.
- No origin is documented, so the meaning question has nothing settled to answer with.
- It belongs audibly to one stretch of American naming, which places it in time for some listeners.
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Marlisa
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Marlisas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Marlisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marlisa in 2025?
- Marlisa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Marlisa with classmates?
- Marlisa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marlisa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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