Melyssa
Feminine · “a honeybee”
The y in this spelling looks like a nod to the Greek and it is the wrong letter. Greek wrote the vowel in that position with an iota, which English represents with an i; the letter English writes as y stood for a different Greek vowel entirely. The respelling reaches for classical authority and picks up the wrong one.
How old is the name Melyssa?
Melyssa first appears in US birth records in 1965 — 60 years ago. The typical Melyssa alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 2,000 people named Melyssa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Melyssa most popular?
Melyssa peaked in 1989, reaching #1301 nationally. See the whole 1989 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From melissa to Melyssa
The story of Melyssa
The plant is named for the same reason the name is worth having. Lemon balm carries this word as its botanical name, and it was given because bees will not leave it alone — beekeepers have rubbed it inside empty hives to attract swarms since antiquity, and the practice is recorded in Roman agricultural writers. The leaves smell of lemon when crushed, the plant grows almost anywhere, and it has been used for two thousand years for everything from anxiety to wounds. It is one of the few plants whose Latin name is a piece of practical beekeeping advice rather than a description of the plant itself.
Meaning
a honeybee
The Greek word for a bee, and the derivation has never been in doubt. The name was in use in antiquity and the sense was transparent to anyone who used it, which is unusual for a name of that age.
How the name formed
- melissa
- Melissa
- Melyssa
Related forms: Melissa · Melissa · Melisa
Pronouncing Melyssa
muh-LISS-uh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The y changes nothing audible; it is a visual claim about the name's origin and an inaccurate one.
Nicknames for Melyssa
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
- 1965
- Most girls named
- 1989121 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1301reached in 1989
- Change vs 2022
- +16.7%7 in 2023, 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.
Melyssa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Melissa in Greek — same name
- Melissa in Italian — same name
- Melisa in Spanish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Melyssas among us
people named Melyssa 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
Melyssa 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.
- It has short forms with quite different registers.
- Melissa is overwhelmingly standard and this spelling gets corrected constantly.
- The y is a classical gesture that points at the wrong Greek letter.
- It is closely tied to the decades of its rise.
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Melyssa
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Melyssas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,000 people named Melyssa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Melyssa in 2025?
- Melyssa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Melyssa with classmates?
- Melyssa 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 Melyssa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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