Sharissa
Feminine
Sharissa rhymes with Marissa and Clarissa, and it is one sound away from Charissa, the figure of Charity in Spenser's The Faerie Queene, pictured with a crowd of infants around her. Nothing records Sharissa coming from Spenser, but the older name is there in the sound.
How old is the name Sharissa?
Sharissa first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Sharissa alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 500 people named Sharissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sharissa most popular?
Sharissa peaked in 1989, reaching #3566 nationally. See the whole 1989 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Sharissa
Our Sharissa takes its sound from an old poem. In the first book of The Faerie Queene, published in 1590, the Redcrosse Knight comes to a House of Holiness where Dame Caelia lives with her three daughters, Fidelia, Speranza and Charissa: faith, hope and charity, the three virtues Paul names in Corinthians. Charissa is a mother with babes clustered about her. Sharissa softens her opening to an sh and falls into step with Marissa and Clarissa, the names it rhymes with. What it keeps from Spenser is the sound, and the picture that comes with it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No meaning is recorded for Sharissa. Charissa, the closest older name, is Edmund Spenser's personification of Christian charity, and its shape recalls the Greek charis, grace. Sharissa reads either as that name with an sh or as Sha- joined to the -rissa of Marissa and Clarissa, and the record does not choose.
Pronouncing Sharissa
shuh-RISS-uh
Stress on the middle syllable, rhyming with Marissa. The doubled s keeps the i short.
Nicknames for Sharissa
Limited
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
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 200233 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3566reached in 1989
- Change vs 2009
- −16.7%5 in 2012, from 6
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.
Sharissas among us
people named Sharissa 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
Sharissa 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
- Rhymes with Marissa and Clarissa, so it is said correctly on sight.
- Carries an echo of Spenser's Charissa for a family that wants a literary thread.
- Rare in its own right.
- It will be written Charissa, Sherissa and Sarissa; expect to spell it.
- The Spenser link is a matter of sound rather than descent, which is worth knowing before telling it as the name's story.
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Sharissa
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Sharissas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Sharissa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sharissa in 2025?
- Sharissa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Sharissa with classmates?
- Sharissa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Susan#1085 · Sarah#90 · Sandra#1207 · Stephanie#557 · Sharon#1250 · Shirley#1581 · Samantha#151 · Sophia#5
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sharissa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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