Elyssa
Elyssa was given to 26 girls in 2025, #5,013 among girls’ names; 7,272 Americans have been recorded with it since 1954 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,140 Americans named Elyssa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 25 years old and half are between 18 and 33.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Elyssa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Elyssa mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Elyssa is “a female given name.”
/əˈlɪs.ə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Elyssa?
#5,013 among girls’ names, 2025
Elyssa fell from #1,923 in 2015 to #5,013 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 58.8 to 16.2 per million.
273 babies in 2004, the peak
Elyssa peaked in 2004, when 273 girls were given it, #891 among girls’ names. The 26 births of 2025 are 10% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 26 | #5,013 | 0.02 |
| 2024 | 49 | #3,244 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 40 | #3,789 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 56 | #2,971 | 0.03 |
| 2021 | 61 | #2,794 | 0.04 |
| 2020 | 81 | #2,223 | 0.05 |
| 2019 | 69 | #2,543 | 0.04 |
| 2018 | 57 | #2,917 | 0.03 |
| 2017 | 97 | #2,024 | 0.06 |
| 2016 | 114 | #1,820 | 0.06 |
Every recorded year (68)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 105 | #1,923 | 0.06 |
| 2014 | 142 | #1,538 | 0.08 |
| 2013 | 134 | #1,606 | 0.08 |
| 2012 | 175 | #1,343 | 0.10 |
| 2011 | 176 | #1,326 | 0.10 |
| 2010 | 188 | #1,270 | 0.11 |
| 2009 | 206 | #1,212 | 0.11 |
| 2008 | 193 | #1,289 | 0.10 |
| 2007 | 246 | #1,065 | 0.13 |
| 2006 | 248 | #1,034 | 0.13 |
| 2005 | 246 | #992 | 0.13 |
| 2004 | 273 | #891 | 0.15 |
| 2003 | 257 | #921 | 0.14 |
| 2002 | 253 | #889 | 0.14 |
| 2001 | 244 | #920 | 0.14 |
| 2000 | 252 | #875 | 0.14 |
| 1999 | 246 | #874 | 0.14 |
| 1998 | 265 | #800 | 0.15 |
| 1997 | 244 | #844 | 0.14 |
| 1996 | 232 | #860 | 0.13 |
| 1995 | 186 | #1,002 | 0.11 |
| 1994 | 189 | #977 | 0.11 |
| 1993 | 189 | #980 | 0.10 |
| 1992 | 163 | #1,100 | 0.09 |
| 1991 | 191 | #983 | 0.10 |
| 1990 | 188 | #980 | 0.10 |
| 1989 | 165 | #1,036 | 0.09 |
| 1988 | 143 | #1,096 | 0.08 |
| 1987 | 113 | #1,249 | 0.06 |
| 1986 | 74 | #1,605 | 0.04 |
| 1985 | 79 | #1,538 | 0.05 |
| 1984 | 42 | #2,314 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 39 | #2,402 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 41 | #2,384 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 56 | #1,921 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 44 | #2,256 | 0.03 |
| 1979 | 52 | #1,981 | 0.03 |
| 1978 | 53 | #1,868 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 40 | #2,269 | 0.03 |
| 1976 | 21 | #3,313 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 17 | #3,814 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 25 | #2,855 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 13 | #4,427 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 19 | #3,310 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 10 | #5,224 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 16 | #3,761 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 19 | #3,125 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 14 | #3,660 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 19 | #2,899 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 8 | #4,991 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 7 | #5,448 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 10 | #4,436 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 10 | #4,342 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 14 | #3,473 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 6 | #6,036 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 9 | #4,551 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 7 | #5,047 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 6 | #5,330 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Elyssa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Elyssa has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 68 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Elyssa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Elyssa, and how old are they?
7,140 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 7,272 Americans ever recorded as Elyssa. The median Elyssa alive today is 25 years old; half are between 18 and 33.
The 2020 Census counted 6,403 people named Elyssa (6,400 women and girls, 3 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6,881 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 53 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 354 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,040 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,670 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,020 |
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 Elyssa born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 7 | #2,571 | 1.1× |
Where Elyssa is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Elyssa is most over-represented in New York: since 1954 it was given 1.3 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 Elyssa with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Elyssa?
Elyssa is a less common spelling of Elisa: SSA has recorded 7,272 Elyssa and 47,804 Elisa since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 138,661 babies since 1880, Elyssa is the fifth most given (5.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 26 of their 1,639 babies (1.6%), the eighth 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 Elyssa
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 Elyssa and names like it
- Compare Elyssa and ElisaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sElyssa peaked in 2004.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Elyssa since 1910.
- The top names of 2004The year the most babies were named Elyssa.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Elyssa alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with EMost given first.