Misa
Feminine · “Japanese”
In Spanish misa is the Mass, and the Mass is named after the sentence that ends it. Ite, missa est — go, it is the dismissal — was the closing formula of the Latin rite, and the service took its name from the last two words spoken in it rather than from anything it contained.
How old is the name Misa?
Misa first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Misa alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 800 people named Misa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Misa most popular?
Misa peaked in 1990, reaching #4380 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 3,111 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Where it comes from
From missa to Misa
The story of Misa
The etymology of Mass is one of the odder cases of a name attaching to the wrong part of a thing. In the Latin rite the congregation was dismissed with Ite, missa est, and missa, the dismissal, became by the fourth century the ordinary word for the whole service — an entire liturgy named for its closing announcement. English took it as Mass, French as messe, Spanish as misa, German as Messe, which also gave the word for a trade fair, because fairs were held on feast days. The American figures for the given name Misa peak in 1990, with Japanese-American families and with Spanish-speaking ones independently.
Meaningscholars disagree
Japanese, of variable written meaning; separately Spanish "Mass"
As a Japanese name Misa is written with various kanji — 美紗, beautiful gauze; 美咲, beautiful bloom — and the meaning depends entirely on the characters, which a romanised spelling cannot show. Separately, Spanish and Italian misa and messa mean the Catholic Mass, from Late Latin missa, a dismissal, from mittere, to send. Slavic languages also have Misa as a familiar form of Mihail. The three are unrelated.
How the name formed
- missa
- misa
- Misa
Related forms: みさ · Misa · Miša
Pronouncing Misa
MEE-sah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with both vowels pure. Japanese gives the syllables even weight and no stress; Spanish stresses the first. English speakers sometimes say MY-suh, which matches neither.
Nicknames for Misa
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
- 1968
- Most girls named
- 200525 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4380reached in 1990
- Change vs 2024
- +27.3%14 in 2025, 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.
Misa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- みさ in Japanese — transliteration
- Misa in Spanish — same name
- Miša in Serbian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Misas among us
people named Misa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Misa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Catharina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Misa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Catharina climbed just as high around 1955, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Catharina's path sketches the road Misa is walking now.
Misa sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Misa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Misa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, four letters, and easy to say in most languages.
- It is an established name in Japanese and readable in Spanish.
- The vowels are pure, so it survives being said by non-native speakers.
- In Spanish it is an ordinary common noun for the Mass.
- The Japanese meaning depends on characters a romanisation cannot carry.
- It is easily confused with Mesa, Misha and Maisa.
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What they receive
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Misa
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Misas 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 Misa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Misa in 2025?
- Misa ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Misa?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Misa — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Misa with classmates?
- Misa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Misa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Misa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Misa and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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