Melisa
Melisa was given to 57 girls in 2025, #2,950 among girls’ names; 19,121 Americans have been recorded with it since 1948 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 18,100 Americans named Melisa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 46 years old and half are between 33 and 54.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Melisa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Melisa mean?
Wiktionary, Turkish section
Melisa is “a female given name from Greek”
Borrowed from Greek Μέλισσα (Mélissa).
[mɛlisɑ]
Meaning: Wiktionary, Turkish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Melisa?
#2,950 among girls’ names, 2025
Melisa fell from #2,609 in 2015 to #2,950 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 38.7 to 35.5 per million.
661 babies in 1979, the peak
Melisa peaked in 1979, when 661 girls were given it, #350 among girls’ names. The 57 births of 2025 are 9% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 57 | #2,950 | 0.04 |
| 2024 | 53 | #3,071 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 54 | #3,073 | 0.03 |
| 2022 | 51 | #3,200 | 0.03 |
| 2021 | 53 | #3,098 | 0.03 |
| 2020 | 44 | #3,479 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 67 | #2,623 | 0.04 |
| 2018 | 69 | #2,551 | 0.04 |
| 2017 | 74 | #2,454 | 0.04 |
| 2016 | 73 | #2,497 | 0.04 |
Every recorded year (78)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 69 | #2,609 | 0.04 |
| 2014 | 83 | #2,264 | 0.05 |
| 2013 | 110 | #1,841 | 0.06 |
| 2012 | 126 | #1,682 | 0.07 |
| 2011 | 132 | #1,636 | 0.08 |
| 2010 | 129 | #1,655 | 0.07 |
| 2009 | 134 | #1,671 | 0.07 |
| 2008 | 153 | #1,524 | 0.08 |
| 2007 | 163 | #1,451 | 0.08 |
| 2006 | 189 | #1,273 | 0.10 |
| 2005 | 188 | #1,215 | 0.10 |
| 2004 | 253 | #953 | 0.14 |
| 2003 | 228 | #1,015 | 0.12 |
| 2002 | 200 | #1,066 | 0.11 |
| 2001 | 216 | #994 | 0.12 |
| 2000 | 213 | #997 | 0.12 |
| 1999 | 196 | #1,040 | 0.11 |
| 1998 | 214 | #959 | 0.12 |
| 1997 | 231 | #879 | 0.13 |
| 1996 | 190 | #991 | 0.11 |
| 1995 | 197 | #955 | 0.11 |
| 1994 | 217 | #886 | 0.12 |
| 1993 | 236 | #835 | 0.13 |
| 1992 | 266 | #773 | 0.14 |
| 1991 | 265 | #777 | 0.14 |
| 1990 | 264 | #777 | 0.14 |
| 1989 | 272 | #725 | 0.15 |
| 1988 | 337 | #595 | 0.19 |
| 1987 | 298 | #636 | 0.17 |
| 1986 | 328 | #589 | 0.19 |
| 1985 | 379 | #526 | 0.22 |
| 1984 | 376 | #517 | 0.22 |
| 1983 | 385 | #504 | 0.23 |
| 1982 | 428 | #484 | 0.25 |
| 1981 | 516 | #421 | 0.31 |
| 1980 | 566 | #405 | 0.34 |
| 1979 | 661 | #350 | 0.41 |
| 1978 | 554 | #380 | 0.36 |
| 1977 | 553 | #382 | 0.36 |
| 1976 | 546 | #377 | 0.37 |
| 1975 | 548 | #379 | 0.38 |
| 1974 | 618 | #352 | 0.42 |
| 1973 | 638 | #342 | 0.44 |
| 1972 | 633 | #351 | 0.42 |
| 1971 | 583 | #388 | 0.35 |
| 1970 | 556 | #410 | 0.32 |
| 1969 | 527 | #420 | 0.31 |
| 1968 | 578 | #383 | 0.35 |
| 1967 | 482 | #426 | 0.29 |
| 1966 | 387 | #478 | 0.23 |
| 1965 | 372 | #495 | 0.21 |
| 1964 | 276 | #603 | 0.15 |
| 1963 | 261 | #625 | 0.14 |
| 1962 | 216 | #703 | 0.11 |
| 1961 | 157 | #844 | 0.08 |
| 1960 | 140 | #882 | 0.07 |
| 1959 | 118 | #973 | 0.06 |
| 1958 | 101 | #1,043 | 0.05 |
| 1957 | 71 | #1,248 | 0.03 |
| 1956 | 51 | #1,500 | 0.03 |
| 1955 | 36 | #1,762 | 0.02 |
| 1954 | 25 | #2,167 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 27 | #1,999 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 25 | #2,059 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 13 | #3,056 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 6 | #5,096 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 5 | #5,768 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 5 | #5,756 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Melisa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Melisa has been given almost only to girls: 10 boys in 78 years of records.
Girls and boys named Melisa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Melisa, and how old are they?
18,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 19,121 Americans ever recorded as Melisa. The median Melisa alive today is 46 years old; half are between 33 and 54.
The 2020 Census counted 18,912 people named Melisa (18,884 women and girls, 28 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 18,069 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,290 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 8,200 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 4,810 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,930 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 852 |
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 Melisa born?
The states with the most babies named Melisa are California, Texas and New York, with 37% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 2,716 | #3,381 | 1.2× |
| Texas | 1,888 | #3,642 | 1.3× |
| New York | 1,237 | #2,306 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 855 | #2,064 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 819 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 610 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 602 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 586 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 474 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| New Jersey | 456 | not ranked | 0.8× |
Where Melisa is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Melisa is most over-represented in Texas: since 1948 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 Melisa 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 796,668 babies since 1880, Melisa is the second most given (2.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 57 of their 804 babies (7.1%), again the second 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 Melisa
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 Melisa and names like it
- Compare Melisa and MelissaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sMelisa peaked in 1979.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Melisa since 1910.
- The top names of 1979The year the most babies were named Melisa.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Melisa alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with MMost given first.