Merissa
Feminine
Merissa is a modern name that people keep trying to give an ancient etymology. The star of the sea reading offered for it and for Marissa is a good story with nothing behind it: the name was made in the twentieth century, and the Latin it is supposed to come from does not produce it.
How old is the name Merissa?
Merissa first appears in US birth records in 1962 — 63 years ago. The typical Merissa alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 3,300 people named Merissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Merissa most popular?
Merissa peaked in 1995, reaching #1045 nationally. See the whole 1995 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Marissa to Merissa
The story of Merissa
What is documented is the shape. Names ending in -issa were being built in America through the middle of the twentieth century — Marissa, Nerissa, Larissa, Charissa — and they behave as a set: the ending is stressed, the front varies, and several of them have real classical namesakes while others have none. Nerissa is Shakespeare's; Larissa is a Greek city. Marissa and Merissa are neither. The e in this spelling is doing the ordinary work of the unstressed vowel, which English reduces so far that the letter chosen for it hardly matters.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source can be given honestly. Marissa, the commoner spelling, is a modern elaboration of Maris or Marisa, and the derivation from a Latin phrase about the sea is a later gloss rather than a documented line. Merissa is a respelling of that.
How the name formed
- Marissa
- Merissa
Pronouncing Merissa
muh-RISS-uh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. Marissa and Merissa are said identically, which is the whole reason both spellings exist.
Nicknames for Merissa
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
- 1962
- Most girls named
- 1995172 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1045reached in 1995
- Change vs 2018
- −33.3%6 in 2019, from 9
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.
Merissas among us
people named Merissa 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
Merissa 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 stress in the middle gives it a lift most English names of its length do not have.
- Rissa works as a short form and stands alone.
- Every sound in it is easy and the spelling follows the sound.
- Marissa is far commoner and will be written instead.
- The meaning offered for it in most name books is an invention, and a family should know that.
- It reads as a name of the second half of the twentieth century.
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Merissa
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Merissas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,300 people named Merissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Merissa in 2025?
- Merissa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Merissa with classmates?
- Merissa 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 Merissa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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