Monisha
Feminine
There is a real Sanskrit name one letter away from this one, and the American Monisha is probably not it. Manisha means thought or intelligence and is in ordinary use across India; Monisha is built from American materials and lands next to it by accident, which is worth saying clearly in both directions.
How old is the name Monisha?
Monisha first appears in US birth records in 1961 — 64 years ago. The typical Monisha alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 1,200 people named Monisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Monisha most popular?
Monisha peaked in 1983, reaching #1379 nationally. See the whole 1983 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Monisha
The front syllable does have a distinguished namesake in Greek, which is equally irrelevant and equally interesting. Monos means alone, and it is one of the most productive borrowings English ever made: a monk is somebody who lives alone, a monastery is where the solitaries live together, which is a contradiction the early church noticed and argued about; a monopoly is a single seller, a monologue a single speaker, a monarch a single ruler. None of that is in this name either. What is in this name is a set of American naming materials, a common opening and a common ending, joined for their sound in the second half of the last century, and the honest account is that it belongs to that tradition rather than to Sanskrit or Greek.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The American name has no traceable source. The resemblance to the Sanskrit Manisha is real, the vowel is wrong, and no record connects the two; the ending is one of the most productive pieces of twentieth-century American naming and the front is a common opening syllable. Name books that supply a Sanskrit meaning are working from the resemblance alone.
Pronouncing Monisha
moh-NEE-shuh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The first vowel is reduced in fast speech, which is why the name is also written Manisha and Munisha in American records with no change in how it is said.
Nicknames for Monisha
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
- 1961
- Most girls named
- 198386 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1379reached in 1983
- Change vs 2014
- +20.0%6 in 2017, from 5
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.
Monisha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Manisha in Sanskrit — related form
Monishas among us
people named Monisha 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
Monisha 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 rhythm is the settled American one and the name sounds established rather than experimental.
- Nisha and Mona are two short forms with nothing at all in common.
- Every sound in it is ordinary English and it is never mispronounced twice.
- It sits one letter from a real Indian name, which will produce assumptions about a family's background.
- Several spellings of the same sound circulate, so spelling it out never quite stops.
- There is no meaning to give a child who asks, and the near-miss with Sanskrit invites a wrong one.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Monisha
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Monishas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Monisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Monisha in 2025?
- Monisha is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Monisha with classmates?
- Monisha 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 Monisha? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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