Karissa
Karissa was given to 58 girls in 2025, #2,915 among girls’ names; 20,089 Americans have been recorded with it since 1961 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 19,700 Americans named Karissa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 30 years old and half are between 22 and 36.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Karissa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Karissa?
#2,915 among girls’ names, 2025
Karissa fell from #1,249 in 2015 to #2,915 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.11 to 0.04 per 1,000.
901 babies in 1991, the peak
Karissa peaked in 1991, when 901 girls were given it, #306 among girls’ names. The 58 births of 2025 are 6% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 58 | #2,915 | 0.04 |
| 2024 | 67 | #2,623 | 0.04 |
| 2023 | 63 | #2,743 | 0.04 |
| 2022 | 72 | #2,502 | 0.04 |
| 2021 | 75 | #2,399 | 0.05 |
| 2020 | 108 | #1,826 | 0.07 |
| 2019 | 106 | #1,894 | 0.06 |
| 2018 | 110 | #1,844 | 0.06 |
| 2017 | 137 | #1,597 | 0.08 |
| 2016 | 167 | #1,399 | 0.09 |
Every recorded year (65)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 196 | #1,249 | 0.11 |
| 2014 | 203 | #1,200 | 0.11 |
| 2013 | 260 | #968 | 0.15 |
| 2012 | 304 | #879 | 0.17 |
| 2011 | 323 | #821 | 0.18 |
| 2010 | 378 | #737 | 0.21 |
| 2009 | 337 | #832 | 0.18 |
| 2008 | 362 | #798 | 0.19 |
| 2007 | 449 | #661 | 0.23 |
| 2006 | 471 | #617 | 0.25 |
| 2005 | 474 | #598 | 0.26 |
| 2004 | 523 | #546 | 0.28 |
| 2003 | 660 | #455 | 0.36 |
| 2002 | 621 | #460 | 0.35 |
| 2001 | 551 | #500 | 0.31 |
| 2000 | 649 | #434 | 0.36 |
| 1999 | 622 | #437 | 0.35 |
| 1998 | 619 | #429 | 0.35 |
| 1997 | 588 | #433 | 0.34 |
| 1996 | 603 | #422 | 0.34 |
| 1995 | 720 | #363 | 0.41 |
| 1994 | 770 | #345 | 0.43 |
| 1993 | 855 | #312 | 0.47 |
| 1992 | 898 | #309 | 0.49 |
| 1991 | 901 | #306 | 0.48 |
| 1990 | 870 | #313 | 0.46 |
| 1989 | 739 | #346 | 0.40 |
| 1988 | 565 | #414 | 0.32 |
| 1987 | 402 | #517 | 0.23 |
| 1986 | 399 | #518 | 0.23 |
| 1985 | 368 | #542 | 0.21 |
| 1984 | 316 | #579 | 0.19 |
| 1983 | 266 | #650 | 0.16 |
| 1982 | 264 | #673 | 0.16 |
| 1981 | 276 | #643 | 0.17 |
| 1980 | 215 | #768 | 0.13 |
| 1979 | 179 | #865 | 0.11 |
| 1978 | 171 | #860 | 0.11 |
| 1977 | 143 | #969 | 0.09 |
| 1976 | 112 | #1,088 | 0.08 |
| 1975 | 94 | #1,222 | 0.06 |
| 1974 | 77 | #1,359 | 0.05 |
| 1973 | 74 | #1,355 | 0.05 |
| 1972 | 48 | #1,793 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 41 | #2,046 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 48 | #1,840 | 0.03 |
| 1969 | 29 | #2,421 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 16 | #3,385 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 20 | #2,821 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 19 | #2,884 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 12 | #3,829 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 5 | #7,235 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 7 | #5,576 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 6 | #6,184 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 8 | #5,071 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Karissa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Karissa has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 65 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Karissa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Karissa, and how old are they?
19,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 20,089 Americans ever recorded as Karissa. The median Karissa alive today is 30 years old; half are between 22 and 36.
The 2020 Census counted 17,331 people named Karissa (17,311 women and girls, 20 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 19,367 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% 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 | 22 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,220 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 8,980 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 7,840 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,610 |
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 Karissa born?
The states with the most babies named Karissa are Texas, New York and California, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 6 | #3,110 | 0.8× |
| New York | 6 | #1,946 | 0.7× |
| California | 5 | #3,314 | 1.1× |
Where Karissa is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Karissa is most over-represented in Wisconsin: since 1961 it was given 1.6 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 Karissa 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 57,902 babies since 1880, Karissa is the second most given (35% of them). In 2025 it was given to 58 of their 104 babies (56%), the 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 Karissa
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 Karissa and names like it
- Compare Karissa and CarissaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKarissa peaked in 1991.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Karissa since 1910.
- The top names of 1991The year the most babies were named Karissa.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Karissa alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.