Marrisa
Feminine
Marrisa doubles a letter that the name it comes from has never had. Marisa arrived in English from Italian in the middle of the last century, brought over by actresses rather than by saints, and English promptly began adding consonants to it — first a second s, then in this spelling a second r as well.
How old is the name Marrisa?
Marrisa first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Marrisa alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 1,000 people named Marrisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marrisa most popular?
Marrisa peaked in 1994, reaching #1862 nationally. See the whole 1994 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Marisa assembled in Italian from two names used together to Marrisa
The story of Marrisa
The route into English was the cinema. Italian films and Italian actresses were unusually visible to American audiences in the two decades after the war, and a set of names traveled with them — Marisa, Gina, Sophia, Anna Maria — arriving without any of the religious or dynastic history that had carried earlier borrowings. They were fashionable rather than inherited, which is why they arrived complete and then immediately began sprouting spellings. Within a generation the American record carried Marissa, Marrisa, Merissa and Maryssa, none of which exists in Italy.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Marisa is Italian and Spanish, and the likeliest account of it is that it was assembled from two names that Italian families used together. It is not a form of Mary, whatever name books say, and the reading that connects it to a Latin phrase about the sea is a later gloss applied by people who saw the letters and reached for an explanation. The doubled consonants in the American spellings are decoration, not descent.
How the name formed
- Marisa assembled in Italian from two names used together
- Italian cinema carries it into English in the 1950s
- American spellings double the consonants
- Marrisa appears in the record in the 1960s
- peaks in the middle 1990s
Related forms: Marisa · Marisa · Marissa
Pronouncing Marrisa
muh-RISS-uh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. Neither doubled consonant changes the sound: the first vowel is unstressed whatever follows it, and the s was already unvoiced.
Nicknames for Marrisa
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
- 1963
- Most girls named
- 199476 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1862reached in 1994
- Change vs 2012
- −36.4%7 in 2016, from 11
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.
Marrisa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marisa in Italian — spelling variant
- Marisa in Spanish — spelling variant
- Marissa in English — spelling variant
Marrisas among us
people named Marrisa 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
Marrisa 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
- The sound is entirely familiar and read correctly by everyone at first sight.
- Rissa and Mari are both available and both work on their own.
- It is genuinely rare as a written form within a very large family.
- Marissa is many times commoner and the extra letter will be dropped everywhere.
- The name has no meaning of its own to give her, and the ones offered are inventions.
- It is closely dated to the last decades of the century.
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Marrisa
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Marrisas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Marrisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marrisa in 2025?
- Marrisa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Marrisa with classmates?
- Marrisa 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 Marrisa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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