Alissa
Alissa was given to 99 girls in 2025, #1,942 among girls’ names; 38,622 Americans have been recorded with it since 1948 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 37,600 Americans named Alissa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 31 years old and half are between 23 and 42.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Alissa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Alissa mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Alissa is “a female given name from the Germanic languages.”
Variant of Alyssa, from Alicia or from alyssum.
/əˈlɪs.ə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Alissa?
#1,942 among girls’ names, 2025
Alissa fell from #937 in 2015 to #1,942 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.16 to 0.06 per 1,000.
1,231 babies in 1998, the peak
Alissa peaked in 1998, when 1,231 girls were given it, #251 among girls’ names. The 99 births of 2025 are 8% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 99 | #1,942 | 0.06 |
| 2024 | 137 | #1,553 | 0.08 |
| 2023 | 123 | #1,681 | 0.08 |
| 2022 | 128 | #1,650 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 149 | #1,441 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 154 | #1,418 | 0.10 |
| 2019 | 153 | #1,446 | 0.09 |
| 2018 | 202 | #1,186 | 0.12 |
| 2017 | 226 | #1,114 | 0.13 |
| 2016 | 224 | #1,133 | 0.13 |
Every recorded year (77)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 289 | #937 | 0.16 |
| 2014 | 322 | #856 | 0.18 |
| 2013 | 377 | #727 | 0.21 |
| 2012 | 416 | #676 | 0.24 |
| 2011 | 474 | #607 | 0.27 |
| 2010 | 585 | #512 | 0.33 |
| 2009 | 691 | #452 | 0.38 |
| 2008 | 731 | #432 | 0.39 |
| 2007 | 1,011 | #332 | 0.53 |
| 2006 | 859 | #376 | 0.45 |
| 2005 | 849 | #368 | 0.46 |
| 2004 | 955 | #333 | 0.52 |
| 2003 | 1,062 | #293 | 0.58 |
| 2002 | 1,034 | #301 | 0.58 |
| 2001 | 1,096 | #284 | 0.61 |
| 2000 | 1,156 | #279 | 0.64 |
| 1999 | 1,121 | #279 | 0.63 |
| 1998 | 1,231 | #251 | 0.70 |
| 1997 | 1,223 | #243 | 0.70 |
| 1996 | 1,073 | #268 | 0.61 |
| 1995 | 999 | #276 | 0.57 |
| 1994 | 1,078 | #260 | 0.60 |
| 1993 | 1,086 | #255 | 0.60 |
| 1992 | 1,035 | #273 | 0.56 |
| 1991 | 959 | #292 | 0.51 |
| 1990 | 998 | #277 | 0.53 |
| 1989 | 897 | #290 | 0.49 |
| 1988 | 780 | #318 | 0.44 |
| 1987 | 753 | #323 | 0.43 |
| 1986 | 828 | #295 | 0.48 |
| 1985 | 823 | #298 | 0.48 |
| 1984 | 797 | #297 | 0.47 |
| 1983 | 744 | #309 | 0.45 |
| 1982 | 789 | #311 | 0.47 |
| 1981 | 848 | #286 | 0.51 |
| 1980 | 944 | #266 | 0.57 |
| 1979 | 1,090 | #236 | 0.68 |
| 1978 | 536 | #388 | 0.35 |
| 1977 | 506 | #408 | 0.33 |
| 1976 | 406 | #466 | 0.28 |
| 1975 | 381 | #482 | 0.26 |
| 1974 | 340 | #510 | 0.23 |
| 1973 | 372 | #481 | 0.26 |
| 1972 | 301 | #552 | 0.20 |
| 1971 | 331 | #544 | 0.20 |
| 1970 | 358 | #529 | 0.20 |
| 1969 | 276 | #598 | 0.16 |
| 1968 | 235 | #629 | 0.14 |
| 1967 | 195 | #701 | 0.12 |
| 1966 | 131 | #874 | 0.08 |
| 1965 | 92 | #1,089 | 0.05 |
| 1964 | 92 | #1,145 | 0.05 |
| 1963 | 81 | #1,218 | 0.04 |
| 1962 | 45 | #1,690 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 54 | #1,532 | 0.03 |
| 1960 | 44 | #1,697 | 0.02 |
| 1959 | 45 | #1,617 | 0.02 |
| 1958 | 42 | #1,656 | 0.02 |
| 1957 | 19 | #2,654 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 23 | #2,320 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 17 | #2,725 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 21 | #2,377 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 8 | #4,231 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 12 | #3,201 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 16 | #2,537 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 5 | #5,256 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 9 | #3,593 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Alissa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Alissa has been given almost only to girls: 31 boys in 77 years of records.
Girls and boys named Alissa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Alissa, and how old are they?
37,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 38,622 Americans ever recorded as Alissa. The median Alissa alive today is 31 years old; half are between 23 and 42.
The 2020 Census counted 34,758 people named Alissa (34,725 women and girls, 33 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 37,089 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 444 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 6,120 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 14,100 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 14,300 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,570 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Alissa born?
The states with the most babies named Alissa are Texas, California and New York, with 73% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 21 | #1,224 | 0.8× |
| California | 16 | #1,411 | 1.0× |
| New York | 7 | #1,664 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 6 | #1,898 | 0.9× |
| Washington | 5 | #1,061 | 1.1× |
| Arizona | 5 | #1,048 | 1.0× |
Where Alissa is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Alissa is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1948 it was given 1.5 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Alissa with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 429,333 babies since 1880, Alissa is the second most given (9.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 99 of their 1,915 babies (5.2%), the fourth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Alissa
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Alissa and names like it
- Compare Alissa and AlyssaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sAlissa peaked in 1998.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Alissa since 1910.
- Germanic namesWiktionary’s origin for Alissa: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1998The year the most babies were named Alissa.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Alissa alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.