Marissa
Marissa was given to 123 girls in 2025, #1,679 among girls’ names; 121,112 Americans have been recorded with it since 1936 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 118,000 Americans named Marissa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 30 years old and half are between 24 and 36.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Marissa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Marissa mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Marissa is “a female given name from Spanish, a contraction of Maria Lisa or Maria Luisa, though sometimes regarded as a re-interpretation of the name Melissa as a homophone in another European language.”
/məˈɹɪsə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Marissa?
#1,679 among girls’ names, 2025
Marissa fell from #536 in 2015 to #1,679 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.33 to 0.08 per 1,000.
6,260 babies in 1994, the peak
Marissa peaked in 1994, when 6,260 babies were given it (6,246 girls, #53 among girls’ names). The 123 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 123 | #1,679 | 0.08 |
| 2024 | 146 | #1,495 | 0.09 |
| 2023 | 138 | #1,547 | 0.09 |
| 2022 | 180 | #1,313 | 0.11 |
| 2021 | 190 | #1,241 | 0.12 |
| 2020 | 228 | #1,083 | 0.14 |
| 2019 | 307 | #877 | 0.18 |
| 2018 | 306 | #886 | 0.18 |
| 2017 | 433 | #678 | 0.25 |
| 2016 | 507 | #597 | 0.29 |
Every recorded year (80)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 583 | #536 | 0.33 |
| 2014 | 683 | #466 | 0.38 |
| 2013 | 820 | #377 | 0.47 |
| 2012 | 1,007 | #320 | 0.57 |
| 2011 | 1,245 | #257 | 0.71 |
| 2010 | 1,532 | #202 | 0.86 |
| 2009 | 1,796 | #183 | 1.0 |
| 2008 | 2,174 | #155 | 1.1 |
| 2007 | 2,622 | #132 | 1.4 |
| 2006 | 3,163 | #104 | 1.7 |
| 2005 | 3,592 | #91 | 1.9 |
| 2004 | 4,009 | #78 | 2.2 |
| 2003 | 3,517 | #95 | 1.9 |
| 2002 | 3,317 | #99 | 1.8 |
| 2001 | 3,853 | #79 | 2.1 |
| 2000 | 4,025 | #78 | 2.2 |
| 1999 | 4,389 | #73 | 2.5 |
| 1998 | 4,722 | #66 | 2.7 |
| 1997 | 5,298 | #60 | 3.0 |
| 1996 | 5,752 | #59 | 3.3 |
| 1995 | 6,081 | #53 | 3.5 |
| 1994 | 6,246 | #53 | 3.5 |
| 1993 | 5,626 | #59 | 3.1 |
| 1992 | 4,873 | #72 | 2.6 |
| 1991 | 4,421 | #81 | 2.4 |
| 1990 | 3,806 | #87 | 2.0 |
| 1989 | 3,794 | #81 | 2.1 |
| 1988 | 2,810 | #101 | 1.6 |
| 1987 | 2,543 | #109 | 1.5 |
| 1986 | 2,443 | #115 | 1.4 |
| 1985 | 1,890 | #152 | 1.1 |
| 1984 | 1,627 | #170 | 1.0 |
| 1983 | 1,620 | #170 | 1.0 |
| 1982 | 1,518 | #181 | 0.90 |
| 1981 | 1,453 | #187 | 0.87 |
| 1980 | 1,403 | #193 | 0.85 |
| 1979 | 1,386 | #194 | 0.86 |
| 1978 | 1,147 | #218 | 0.75 |
| 1977 | 1,069 | #233 | 0.70 |
| 1976 | 614 | #350 | 0.42 |
| 1975 | 381 | #484 | 0.26 |
| 1974 | 365 | #484 | 0.25 |
| 1973 | 350 | #498 | 0.24 |
| 1972 | 273 | #588 | 0.18 |
| 1971 | 274 | #618 | 0.16 |
| 1970 | 263 | #631 | 0.15 |
| 1969 | 256 | #622 | 0.15 |
| 1968 | 238 | #624 | 0.15 |
| 1967 | 210 | #664 | 0.13 |
| 1966 | 140 | #846 | 0.08 |
| 1965 | 114 | #964 | 0.06 |
| 1964 | 99 | #1,099 | 0.05 |
| 1963 | 117 | #988 | 0.06 |
| 1962 | 105 | #1,055 | 0.05 |
| 1961 | 104 | #1,077 | 0.05 |
| 1960 | 92 | #1,133 | 0.05 |
| 1959 | 65 | #1,331 | 0.03 |
| 1958 | 91 | #1,109 | 0.05 |
| 1957 | 76 | #1,214 | 0.04 |
| 1956 | 69 | #1,255 | 0.03 |
| 1955 | 39 | #1,656 | 0.02 |
| 1954 | 20 | #2,488 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 19 | #2,477 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 15 | #2,878 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 7 | #4,665 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 7 | #4,583 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 7 | #4,520 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 7 | #4,611 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 7 | #4,268 | under 0.01 |
| 1936 | 5 | #4,622 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Marissa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Marissa has been given almost only to girls: 270 boys in 80 years of records.
Girls and boys named Marissa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Marissa, and how old are they?
118,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 121,112 Americans ever recorded as Marissa. The median Marissa alive today is 30 years old; half are between 24 and 36.
The 2020 Census counted 111,567 people named Marissa (111,436 women and girls, 131 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 118,183 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 1 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 787 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 8,020 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 55,300 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 49,700 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,610 |
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 Marissa born?
The states with the most babies named Marissa are Texas, California and Michigan, with 60% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 22 | #1,213 | 1.1× |
| California | 15 | #1,544 | 1.2× |
| Michigan | 8 | #925 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 7 | #1,187 | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 6 | #1,350 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 6 | #2,059 | 0.8× |
| Tennessee | 6 | #1,079 | 0.5× |
| New York | 5 | #2,293 | 1.1× |
Where Marissa is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Marissa is most over-represented in New Mexico: since 1936 it was given 1.7 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 Marissa 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 178,690 babies since 1880, Marissa is the most given (68% of them). In 2025 it was given to 123 of their 148 babies (83%), again the most given.
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 Marissa
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 Marissa and names like it
- Compare Marissa and MarisaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sMarissa peaked in 1994.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Marissa since 1910.
- The top names of 1994The year the most babies were named Marissa.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Marissa alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with MMost given first.