Misty
Misty was given to 35 girls in 2025, #4,139 among girls’ names; 84,891 Americans have been recorded with it since 1944 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 80,600 Americans named Misty and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 47 years old and half are between 43 and 51.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Misty by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Misty mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Misty is “a female given name from English, reasonably popular in the 1970s and the 1980s.”
Also “a diminutive of the female given name Melissa.”
From the adjective misty, but sometimes also (like Missy) used as a nickname for Melissa.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Misty?
#4,139 among girls’ names, 2025
Misty fell from #3,202 in 2015 to #4,139 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 29.1 to 21.8 per million.
6,333 babies in 1977, the peak
Misty peaked in 1977, when 6,333 babies were given it (6,315 girls, #40 among girls’ names). The 35 births of 2025 are under 1% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 35 | #4,139 | 0.02 |
| 2024 | 36 | #4,094 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 25 | #5,212 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 23 | #5,579 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 32 | #4,383 | 0.02 |
| 2020 | 37 | #3,889 | 0.02 |
| 2019 | 35 | #4,130 | 0.02 |
| 2018 | 35 | #4,123 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 40 | #3,821 | 0.02 |
| 2016 | 43 | #3,641 | 0.02 |
Every recorded year (81)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 52 | #3,202 | 0.03 |
| 2014 | 64 | #2,728 | 0.04 |
| 2013 | 40 | #3,827 | 0.02 |
| 2012 | 66 | #2,701 | 0.04 |
| 2011 | 77 | #2,409 | 0.04 |
| 2010 | 68 | #2,666 | 0.04 |
| 2009 | 103 | #2,012 | 0.06 |
| 2008 | 85 | #2,311 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 93 | #2,159 | 0.05 |
| 2006 | 111 | #1,842 | 0.06 |
| 2005 | 136 | #1,522 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 129 | #1,542 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 164 | #1,277 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 166 | #1,216 | 0.09 |
| 2001 | 199 | #1,070 | 0.11 |
| 2000 | 242 | #905 | 0.13 |
| 1999 | 241 | #887 | 0.14 |
| 1998 | 308 | #719 | 0.17 |
| 1997 | 325 | #670 | 0.19 |
| 1996 | 369 | #619 | 0.21 |
| 1995 | 412 | #562 | 0.23 |
| 1994 | 488 | #511 | 0.27 |
| 1993 | 598 | #416 | 0.33 |
| 1992 | 741 | #352 | 0.40 |
| 1991 | 941 | #295 | 0.50 |
| 1990 | 996 | #279 | 0.52 |
| 1989 | 1,218 | #226 | 0.66 |
| 1988 | 1,408 | #194 | 0.79 |
| 1987 | 1,712 | #162 | 1.0 |
| 1986 | 1,971 | #145 | 1.1 |
| 1985 | 2,413 | #121 | 1.4 |
| 1984 | 2,792 | #98 | 1.7 |
| 1983 | 3,189 | #87 | 1.9 |
| 1982 | 4,071 | #74 | 2.4 |
| 1981 | 4,799 | #61 | 2.9 |
| 1980 | 5,541 | #49 | 3.3 |
| 1979 | 5,785 | #42 | 3.6 |
| 1978 | 5,834 | #43 | 3.8 |
| 1977 | 6,315 | #40 | 4.1 |
| 1976 | 5,906 | #46 | 4.0 |
| 1975 | 5,552 | #47 | 3.8 |
| 1974 | 4,439 | #66 | 3.0 |
| 1973 | 3,475 | #90 | 2.4 |
| 1972 | 2,425 | #125 | 1.6 |
| 1971 | 1,493 | #200 | 0.90 |
| 1970 | 1,151 | #266 | 0.66 |
| 1969 | 949 | #295 | 0.56 |
| 1968 | 841 | #305 | 0.51 |
| 1967 | 789 | #307 | 0.48 |
| 1966 | 680 | #344 | 0.40 |
| 1965 | 492 | #422 | 0.28 |
| 1964 | 431 | #467 | 0.23 |
| 1963 | 342 | #527 | 0.18 |
| 1962 | 293 | #574 | 0.15 |
| 1961 | 265 | #628 | 0.13 |
| 1960 | 212 | #701 | 0.10 |
| 1959 | 77 | #1,221 | 0.04 |
| 1958 | 39 | #1,755 | 0.02 |
| 1957 | 36 | #1,830 | 0.02 |
| 1956 | 26 | #2,180 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 33 | #1,868 | 0.02 |
| 1954 | 16 | #2,855 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 19 | #2,481 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 7 | #4,791 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 9 | #3,910 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 14 | #2,861 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 5 | #5,786 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 6 | #5,076 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 15 | #2,731 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 5 | #5,034 | under 0.01 |
| 1944 | 9 | #3,301 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Misty a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Misty has been given almost only to girls: 237 boys in 81 years of records.
Girls and boys named Misty: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Misty, and how old are they?
80,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 84,891 Americans ever recorded as Misty. The median Misty alive today is 47 years old; half are between 43 and 51.
The 2020 Census counted 70,424 people named Misty (70,350 women and girls, 74 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 81,613 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 8 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,570 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 48,800 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 27,300 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,480 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 494 |
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 Misty born?
The states with the most babies named Misty are Texas, California and Ohio, with 26% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 11,091 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| California | 6,203 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 4,462 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Tennessee | 4,317 | not ranked | 2.4× |
| North Carolina | 3,177 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Indiana | 3,154 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Oklahoma | 3,073 | not ranked | 2.6× |
| Georgia | 3,057 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Kentucky | 3,055 | not ranked | 2.0× |
| Alabama | 2,815 | not ranked | 1.9× |
Where Misty is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Misty is most over-represented in Oklahoma: since 1944 it was given 2.6 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 Misty 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 96,554 babies since 1880, Misty is the most given (88% of them). In 2025 it was given to 35 of their 35 babies (100%), 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 Misty
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 Misty and names like it
- Compare Misty and MistiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sMisty peaked in 1977.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Misty since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Misty: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1977The year the most babies were named Misty.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Misty alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with MMost given first.