Missy
Missy was given to 21 girls in 2025, #5,849 among girls’ names; 5,776 Americans have been recorded with it since 1943 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,240 Americans named Missy and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (91% of everyone recorded); the median is 56 years old and half are between 46 and 62.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Missy by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Missy mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Missy is “a diminutive of the female given name Melissa.”
/ˈmɪs.i/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Missy?
#5,849 among girls’ names, 2025
Missy rose from #11,556 in 2015 to #5,849 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 5.0 to 13.1 per million.
303 babies in 1967, the peak
Missy peaked in 1967, when 303 girls were given it, #541 among girls’ names. The 21 births of 2025 are 7% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 21 | #5,849 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 19 | #6,324 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 14 | #7,919 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 21 | #5,911 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 12 | #8,823 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 14 | #7,833 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 11 | #9,541 | 0.01 |
| 2018 | 14 | #8,030 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 6 | #15,350 | under 0.01 |
| 2016 | 10 | #10,614 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (82)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 9 | #11,556 | 0.01 |
| 2014 | 13 | #8,805 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 11 | #10,028 | 0.01 |
| 2012 | 11 | #10,197 | 0.01 |
| 2011 | 18 | #7,032 | 0.01 |
| 2010 | 12 | #9,619 | 0.01 |
| 2009 | 16 | #7,952 | 0.01 |
| 2008 | 9 | #12,287 | under 0.01 |
| 2007 | 15 | #8,399 | 0.01 |
| 2006 | 15 | #8,117 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 15 | #7,787 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 9 | #11,328 | under 0.01 |
| 2003 | 19 | #6,230 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 13 | #8,148 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 15 | #7,203 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 19 | #5,865 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 9 | #10,056 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 23 | #4,747 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 22 | #4,762 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 22 | #4,689 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 26 | #4,060 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 21 | #4,785 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 36 | #3,197 | 0.02 |
| 1992 | 23 | #4,471 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 36 | #3,129 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 29 | #3,681 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 42 | #2,696 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 46 | #2,391 | 0.03 |
| 1987 | 49 | #2,217 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 68 | #1,728 | 0.04 |
| 1985 | 64 | #1,777 | 0.04 |
| 1984 | 58 | #1,858 | 0.03 |
| 1983 | 55 | #1,898 | 0.03 |
| 1982 | 82 | #1,466 | 0.05 |
| 1981 | 121 | #1,137 | 0.07 |
| 1980 | 175 | #877 | 0.11 |
| 1979 | 91 | #1,359 | 0.06 |
| 1978 | 83 | #1,405 | 0.05 |
| 1977 | 100 | #1,220 | 0.07 |
| 1976 | 108 | #1,115 | 0.07 |
| 1975 | 102 | #1,144 | 0.07 |
| 1974 | 109 | #1,079 | 0.07 |
| 1973 | 155 | #841 | 0.11 |
| 1972 | 174 | #788 | 0.11 |
| 1971 | 216 | #708 | 0.13 |
| 1970 | 268 | #629 | 0.15 |
| 1969 | 271 | #606 | 0.16 |
| 1968 | 287 | #564 | 0.17 |
| 1967 | 303 | #541 | 0.18 |
| 1966 | 239 | #614 | 0.14 |
| 1965 | 220 | #666 | 0.12 |
| 1964 | 223 | #688 | 0.12 |
| 1963 | 215 | #691 | 0.11 |
| 1962 | 227 | #685 | 0.12 |
| 1961 | 191 | #754 | 0.09 |
| 1960 | 186 | #749 | 0.09 |
| 1959 | 132 | #911 | 0.07 |
| 1958 | 127 | #914 | 0.06 |
| 1957 | 90 | #1,105 | 0.04 |
| 1956 | 62 | #1,323 | 0.03 |
| 1955 | 47 | #1,491 | 0.02 |
| 1954 | 38 | #1,664 | 0.02 |
| 1953 | 41 | #1,544 | 0.02 |
| 1952 | 15 | #2,884 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 19 | #2,362 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 15 | #2,740 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 11 | #3,330 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 6 | #5,075 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 10 | #3,621 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 14 | #2,700 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 8 | #3,590 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 5 | #5,149 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Missy a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Missy has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 82 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Missy: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Missy, and how old are they?
5,240 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 91% of the 5,776 Americans ever recorded as Missy. The median Missy alive today is 56 years old; half are between 46 and 62.
The 2020 Census counted 6,541 people named Missy (6,518 women and girls, 23 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,296 born in the U.S. The Census count is 24% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 7 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,390 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,670 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 754 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 237 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 174 |
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 Missy born?
The states with the most babies named Missy are Texas, Ohio and California, with 35% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 511 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Ohio | 381 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| California | 309 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Illinois | 201 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Tennessee | 198 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Missouri | 167 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Kentucky | 166 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Indiana | 152 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 152 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Florida | 134 | not ranked | 0.7× |
Where Missy is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Missy is most over-represented in Kentucky: since 1943 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 Missy 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 8,042 babies since 1880, Missy is the most given (72% of them). In 2025 it was given to 21 of their 35 babies (60%), 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 Missy
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 Missy and names like it
- Compare Missy and MissieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sMissy peaked in 1967.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Missy since 1910.
- The top names of 1967The year the most babies were named Missy.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Missy alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with MMost given first.