Alyssa
Alyssa was given to 680 girls in 2025, #453 among girls’ names; 315,038 Americans have been recorded with it since 1950 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 310,000 Americans named Alyssa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 26 years old and half are between 20 and 33.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Alyssa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Alyssa mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Alyssa is “a female given name from the Germanic languages, popular in the US in the 1990s and the 2000s.”
A 20th-century invention. Possible origins:
From alyss(um) (“a plant of the genus Alyssum”) + -a.
From Alicia, of Germanic origin.
From Elissa.
/əˈlɪs.ə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Alyssa?
#453 among girls’ names, 2025
Alyssa fell from #93 in 2015 to #453 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 1.8 to 0.42 per 1,000.
14,050 babies in 1999, the peak
Alyssa peaked in 1999, when 14,050 babies were given it (14,036 girls, #11 among girls’ names). The 680 births of 2025 are 5% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 680 | #453 | 0.42 |
| 2024 | 795 | #399 | 0.49 |
| 2023 | 930 | #334 | 0.58 |
| 2022 | 1,099 | #288 | 0.67 |
| 2021 | 1,301 | #233 | 0.79 |
| 2020 | 1,472 | #199 | 0.91 |
| 2019 | 1,699 | #171 | 1.0 |
| 2018 | 1,884 | #150 | 1.1 |
| 2017 | 2,241 | #133 | 1.3 |
| 2016 | 2,680 | #119 | 1.5 |
Every recorded year (73)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 3,255 | #93 | 1.8 |
| 2014 | 3,849 | #76 | 2.2 |
| 2013 | 4,214 | #57 | 2.4 |
| 2012 | 5,091 | #44 | 2.9 |
| 2011 | 6,029 | #37 | 3.4 |
| 2010 | 6,993 | #21 | 3.9 |
| 2009 | 7,980 | #19 | 4.3 |
| 2008 | 9,653 | #16 | 5.1 |
| 2007 | 11,275 | #14 | 5.9 |
| 2006 | 10,177 | #19 | 5.4 |
| 2005 | 10,891 | #16 | 5.9 |
| 2004 | 12,109 | #14 | 6.6 |
| 2003 | 12,750 | #14 | 7.0 |
| 2002 | 12,847 | #12 | 7.1 |
| 2001 | 13,272 | #14 | 7.4 |
| 2000 | 13,553 | #12 | 7.5 |
| 1999 | 14,036 | #11 | 7.9 |
| 1998 | 13,709 | #11 | 7.8 |
| 1997 | 12,649 | #15 | 7.3 |
| 1996 | 11,024 | #23 | 6.3 |
| 1995 | 10,100 | #27 | 5.7 |
| 1994 | 10,602 | #26 | 5.9 |
| 1993 | 11,031 | #26 | 6.1 |
| 1992 | 10,163 | #30 | 5.5 |
| 1991 | 10,678 | #30 | 5.7 |
| 1990 | 11,263 | #27 | 5.9 |
| 1989 | 9,042 | #33 | 4.9 |
| 1988 | 7,135 | #47 | 4.0 |
| 1987 | 5,136 | #60 | 3.0 |
| 1986 | 3,225 | #85 | 1.9 |
| 1985 | 2,258 | #130 | 1.3 |
| 1984 | 1,538 | #180 | 0.91 |
| 1983 | 1,201 | #209 | 0.72 |
| 1982 | 1,109 | #230 | 0.65 |
| 1981 | 1,128 | #228 | 0.68 |
| 1980 | 1,180 | #217 | 0.71 |
| 1979 | 1,174 | #223 | 0.73 |
| 1978 | 801 | #290 | 0.52 |
| 1977 | 759 | #315 | 0.50 |
| 1976 | 681 | #327 | 0.46 |
| 1975 | 558 | #372 | 0.38 |
| 1974 | 467 | #419 | 0.32 |
| 1973 | 449 | #433 | 0.31 |
| 1972 | 344 | #504 | 0.23 |
| 1971 | 402 | #479 | 0.24 |
| 1970 | 444 | #467 | 0.25 |
| 1969 | 380 | #499 | 0.23 |
| 1968 | 199 | #687 | 0.12 |
| 1967 | 143 | #847 | 0.09 |
| 1966 | 137 | #857 | 0.08 |
| 1965 | 119 | #933 | 0.07 |
| 1964 | 118 | #977 | 0.06 |
| 1963 | 123 | #954 | 0.06 |
| 1962 | 86 | #1,184 | 0.04 |
| 1961 | 87 | #1,183 | 0.04 |
| 1960 | 111 | #1,020 | 0.05 |
| 1959 | 35 | #1,880 | 0.02 |
| 1958 | 20 | #2,582 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 13 | #3,315 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 12 | #3,496 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 7 | #4,665 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 6 | #5,056 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,317 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Alyssa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Alyssa has been given almost only to girls: 432 boys in 73 years of records.
Girls and boys named Alyssa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Alyssa, and how old are they?
310,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 315,038 Americans ever recorded as Alyssa. The median Alyssa alive today is 26 years old; half are between 20 and 33.
The 2020 Census counted 274,552 people named Alyssa (274,237 women and girls, 315 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 305,167 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 531 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 7,760 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 104,000 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 171,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 25,900 |
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 Alyssa born?
The states with the most babies named Alyssa are California, Texas and Florida, with 46% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 137 | #242 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 101 | #339 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 61 | #305 | 1.0× |
| New York | 44 | #389 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 22 | #490 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 19 | #560 | 0.7× |
| New Jersey | 18 | #423 | 1.1× |
| Massachusetts | 17 | #335 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 16 | #617 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 16 | #599 | 1.0× |
Where Alyssa is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Alyssa is most over-represented in New Mexico: since 1950 it was given 1.2 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 Alyssa 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 430,329 babies since 1880, Alyssa is the most given (73% of them). In 2025 it was given to 680 of their 1,964 babies (35%), the second 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 Alyssa
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 Alyssa and names like it
- Compare Alyssa and AlissaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sAlyssa peaked in 1999.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Alyssa since 1910.
- Germanic namesWiktionary’s origin for Alyssa: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1999The year the most babies were named Alyssa.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Alyssa alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.