Nerissa
Feminine · “Greek Nereis”
The Nereids were fifty sea-nymphs and every one of them had a name describing a property of the sea: the swift wave, the sandy shore, the safe voyage, the surf on rock. Nerissa comes out of that catalog.
How old is the name Nerissa?
Nerissa first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Nerissa alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 1,900 people named Nerissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nerissa most popular?
Nerissa peaked in 1979, reaching #1569 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 8,538 places below that high. See the whole 1979 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Nereis to Nerissa
The story of Nerissa
Hesiod lists the Nereids by name, and the list is a piece of poetry about the sea disguised as a genealogy: Glauke the blue-grey, Thetis, Kymodoke who steadies the waves, Aktaia of the shore, Galene the calm, Pontoporeia the sea-crosser. Each name is an aspect of water given a person, which is how Greek myth handled natural forces generally, and the catalog is a reminder that a class of divinities could be described exhaustively by dividing one thing into fifty. Nereis is the generic term for a member of that class. Shakespeare took the shape of it for a witty attendant in a Venetian comedy, and English has used Nerissa quietly ever since, which is a long afterlife for a word that started out meaning simply a daughter of the sea.
Meaning
Greek Nereis, a daughter of Nereus
From Greek Nereis, a Nereid, one of the sea-nymph daughters of the old sea god Nereus. Shakespeare used the form Nerissa for Portia's waiting-gentlewoman in The Merchant of Venice, around 1597, which is how it entered English. The American peak is 1979.
How the name formed
- Nereis
- Nerissa
Related forms: Nereis · Nerissa
Pronouncing Nerissa
nuh-RISS-uh
Three syllables, stress on the second. The first vowel is reduced, which is why it is sometimes written Narissa.
Nicknames for Nerissa
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
- 1915
- Most girls named
- 197973 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1569reached in 1979
- Change vs 2023
- +80.0%9 in 2025, 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.
Nerissa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nereis in Greek — related form
- Nerissa in Italian — same name
Nerissas among us
people named Nerissa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Nerissa
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 Teddie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nerissa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Teddie climbed just as high around 1941, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Teddie's path sketches the road Nerissa is walking now.
Nerissa 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
Nerissa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nerissa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Rissa and Nessa are two ready short forms.
- The Greek source is documented and the imagery is specific.
- Three syllables with a strong central stress.
- It will be heard as Marissa or Clarissa constantly.
- The unstressed first vowel makes the spelling hard to guess.
- The 1979 peak dates its American use.
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What they receive
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Nerissa
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nerissas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Nerissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nerissa in 2025?
- Nerissa ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nerissa?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Nerissa — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nerissa with classmates?
- Nerissa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nerissa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nerissa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nerissa and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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