Melissia
Feminine · “a honeybee”
The extra i in this spelling creates a syllable that English then declines to say. Written out, the name has four beats; spoken, almost everybody gives it three and says it exactly as the standard form is said. The letter is there and the sound it should produce is not.
How old is the name Melissia?
Melissia first appears in US birth records in 1894 — 131 years ago. The typical Melissia alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 1,800 people named Melissia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Melissia most popular?
Melissia peaked in 1968, reaching #939 nationally. See the whole 1968 chart.
Where it comes from
From melissa to Melissia
The story of Melissia
The insect behind the name mattered more than it now does. Until sugar cane reached Europe in quantity — and it did not, in any affordable way, until the crusades and then the Atlantic plantations — honey was the only sweetener the continent had. It was also the basis of mead, of preserving, of medicine and of a good deal of religious symbolism, and beekeeping was a substantial economic activity with its own laws about swarms and hives. A name meaning bee was not a decorative choice about nature. It named the source of the only sweet thing anyone had.
Meaning
a honeybee
The Greek word for a bee, and the derivation is not in doubt. The added syllable contributes nothing to the sense and is not reliably pronounced in any case.
How the name formed
- melissa
- Melissa
- Melissia
Pronouncing Melissia
muh-LISS-uh
Three syllables in practice, though the spelling suggests four. The extra i is rarely given a beat of its own by anybody.
Nicknames for Melissia
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
- 1894
- Most girls named
- 1968121 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #939reached in 1968
- Change vs 1999
- −16.7%5 in 2000, 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.
Melissias among us
people named Melissia 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
Melissia 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 meaning is concrete, pleasant and genuinely ancient.
- The name underneath is recognized everywhere without explanation.
- The short forms are numerous and cover several registers.
- Melissa is overwhelmingly standard and this gets corrected constantly.
- The spelling promises a syllable that nobody delivers.
- It is closely tied to the decades of the base name's rise.
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What they receive
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Melissia
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Melissias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Melissia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Melissia in 2025?
- Melissia is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Melissia with classmates?
- Melissia 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 Melissia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Melissia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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