Monalisa
Feminine · “My lady Elisabetta”
The painting became famous when it was stolen. For two years it was missing from the Louvre, the newspapers of the world ran the story daily, and people queued to look at the empty space on the wall where it had been, which is more or less when it stopped being one good Renaissance portrait among many.
How old is the name Monalisa?
Monalisa first appears in US birth records in 1950 — 75 years ago. The typical Monalisa alive today was born around 1977, making them about 48 years old. About 1,000 people named Monalisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Monalisa most popular?
Monalisa peaked in 1950, reaching #1576 nationally. See the whole 1950 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mia donna to Monalisa
The story of Monalisa
The woman was identified by a note scribbled in the margin of a book. A Florentine official, reading his Cicero, wrote alongside a passage about a painter finishing one part of a picture and leaving the rest that Leonardo was doing exactly that at present, and named the sitter as the wife of a silk merchant called del Giocondo; he dated the note. It sat unread in a German university library for four centuries. The identification had been proposed on other grounds and disputed for as long, and one bored civil servant's marginal comment settled it. The thief, incidentally, was an Italian workman who thought the picture had been looted by Napoleon and should go home.
Meaning
My lady Elisabetta
A contracted Italian courtesy title followed by the everyday form of Elisabetta. Read strictly it is an address rather than a name, and the American record treats the whole phrase as a single given name, which is not how any Italian would read it.
How the name formed
- mia donna
- Monna Lisa
- Monalisa
Related forms: Monna Lisa
Pronouncing Monalisa
MOH-nuh-LEE-suh
Four syllables with two stresses, one on each half. Italian doubles the n in the title, which shortens the first vowel; the English reading keeps it long and the name sounds different in its home country.
Nicknames for Monalisa
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
- 1950
- Most girls named
- 196537 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1576reached in 1950
- Change vs 2022
- −12.5%7 in 2024, 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.
Monalisa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Monna Lisa in Italian — same name
Monalisas among us
people named Monalisa 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
Monalisa 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
- Either half stands alone as a complete and established name.
- Nobody ever needs to be told how to say it.
- The reference is universally recognized and easy to explain.
- The name points to a specific and very famous object, which is a great deal to carry.
- Written as one word it will be split in two by forms and databases.
- It is closely dated to the middle of the twentieth century in American use.
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What they receive
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Monalisa
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Monalisas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Monalisa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Monalisa in 2025?
- Monalisa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Monalisa with classmates?
- Monalisa 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 Monalisa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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