Misti
Feminine · “misty”
Misti is the weather. English has taken a small number of weather words for daughters — Misty, Stormy, Sunny, Windy — and they behave differently from flower or gem names because they describe a condition rather than a thing. The word itself is very old, and the name is not.
How old is the name Misti?
Misti first appears in US birth records in 1952 — 73 years ago. The typical Misti alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 8,000 people named Misti are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Misti most popular?
Misti peaked in 1975, reaching #389 nationally. See the whole 1975 chart.
Where it comes from
From mist to Misti
The story of Misti
The name entered American use in the middle of the last century, and the most visible carrier of the word in that period was a piece of music: a jazz standard written in the nineteen-fifties, recorded by nearly everyone and familiar enough that a film could be built around the phrase play it. Whether that put the word into the naming pool or simply kept it there is not something the record can settle, but the timing fits. The bare i spelling belongs to the same American moment that produced Jodi, Sandi and Terri, where a final long e was written with a single letter.
Meaning
misty
Old English mist gives the noun and the adjective, and the word is shared across the Germanic languages with relatives further afield in Sanskrit and Greek meaning cloud or urine — the underlying idea being something fine and airborne. The adjective form is the name. Nothing about the derivation is disputed, and the name means exactly what the word means, which is unusual and refreshing.
How the name formed
- mist
- Misty
- Misti
Pronouncing Misti
MISS-tee
MISS-tee, two syllables, stress at the front, exactly as the word is said. The bare i at the end is a long e, as in Jodi and Lori. There is no competing reading.
Nicknames for Misti
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
- 1952
- Most girls named
- 1975521 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #389reached in 1975
- Change vs 2011
- −37.5%5 in 2016, from 8
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.
Mistis among us
people named Misti 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
Misti 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
- Everyone knows the word, so the name is never mispronounced.
- The meaning is entirely transparent and needs no explanation to anyone.
- Missy is available as a short form and is a standing name of its own.
- Misty is the standard spelling and this one will be rewritten as that on most documents.
- A weather word describes a condition, and the condition here is one of low visibility — the association is soft rather than flattering.
- The name places a person in a fairly narrow stretch of the last century.
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What they receive
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Misti
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Mistis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,000 people named Misti are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Misti in 2025?
- Misti is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Misti with classmates?
- Misti 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 Misti? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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