Nessa
Nessa was given to 63 girls in 2025, #2,744 among girls’ names; 1,368 Americans have been recorded with it since 1935 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,340 Americans named Nessa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 6 and 26.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nessa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nessa mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Nessa is “a female given name, nickname of Vanessa.”
/ˈnɛsə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nessa?
#2,744 among girls’ names, 2025
Nessa rose from #3,334 in 2015 to #2,744 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 27.4 to 39.2 per million.
83 babies in 2016, the peak
Nessa peaked in 2016, when 83 girls were given it, #2,302 among girls’ names. The 63 births of 2025 are 76% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 63 | #2,744 | 39.2 |
| 2024 | 58 | #2,882 | 35.8 |
| 2023 | 54 | #3,078 | 33.7 |
| 2022 | 53 | #3,110 | 32.3 |
| 2021 | 59 | #2,881 | 36.0 |
| 2020 | 53 | #3,054 | 32.8 |
| 2019 | 43 | #3,598 | 25.6 |
| 2018 | 63 | #2,730 | 37.0 |
| 2017 | 74 | #2,456 | 42.9 |
| 2016 | 83 | #2,302 | 46.8 |
Every recorded year (60)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 49 | #3,334 | 27.4 |
| 2014 | 32 | #4,522 | 17.9 |
| 2013 | 32 | #4,510 | 18.2 |
| 2012 | 20 | #6,512 | 11.4 |
| 2011 | 37 | #4,050 | 21.0 |
| 2010 | 25 | #5,549 | 14.1 |
| 2009 | 31 | #4,775 | 16.9 |
| 2008 | 28 | #5,237 | 14.8 |
| 2007 | 26 | #5,483 | 13.5 |
| 2006 | 26 | #5,339 | 13.7 |
| 2005 | 31 | #4,457 | 16.8 |
| 2004 | 25 | #5,167 | 13.6 |
| 2003 | 10 | #10,216 | 5.5 |
| 2002 | 19 | #6,052 | 10.6 |
| 2001 | 17 | #6,535 | 9.4 |
| 2000 | 12 | #8,396 | 6.6 |
| 1999 | 17 | #6,118 | 9.6 |
| 1998 | 14 | #6,974 | 7.9 |
| 1997 | 6 | #13,242 | 3.4 |
| 1996 | 11 | #7,955 | 6.3 |
| 1995 | 11 | #7,909 | 6.3 |
| 1994 | 17 | #5,620 | 9.5 |
| 1993 | 17 | #5,605 | 9.4 |
| 1992 | 17 | #5,642 | 9.2 |
| 1991 | 15 | #6,157 | 8.0 |
| 1990 | 14 | #6,358 | 7.4 |
| 1989 | 11 | #7,295 | 6.0 |
| 1988 | 9 | #8,167 | 5.1 |
| 1987 | 18 | #4,605 | 10.4 |
| 1986 | 11 | #6,451 | 6.4 |
| 1985 | 9 | #7,368 | 5.2 |
| 1984 | 5 | #11,599 | 3.0 |
| 1983 | 8 | #7,813 | 4.8 |
| 1982 | 6 | #10,060 | 3.5 |
| 1981 | 13 | #5,485 | 7.8 |
| 1980 | 15 | #4,908 | 9.0 |
| 1979 | 8 | #7,798 | 5.0 |
| 1978 | 11 | #5,844 | 7.2 |
| 1977 | 8 | #7,344 | 5.2 |
| 1976 | 14 | #4,518 | 9.6 |
| 1975 | 9 | #6,289 | 6.2 |
| 1974 | 7 | #7,426 | 4.8 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,331 | 3.4 |
| 1972 | 5 | #9,168 | 3.3 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,690 | 3.4 |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,544 | 3.2 |
| 1963 | 6 | #6,381 | 3.1 |
| 1948 | 6 | #5,090 | 3.5 |
| 1940 | 5 | #4,849 | 4.4 |
| 1935 | 5 | #4,709 | 4.8 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Nessa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nessa has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 60 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nessa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nessa, and how old are they?
1,340 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,368 Americans ever recorded as Nessa. The median Nessa alive today is 12 years old; half are between 6 and 26.
The 2020 Census counted 1,272 people named Nessa (1,265 women and girls, 7 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,022 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 | 3 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 14 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 83 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 187 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 341 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 712 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 3,200 babies since 1880, Nessa is the most given (43% of them). In 2025 it was given to 63 of their 82 babies (77%), 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 Nessa
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 Nessa and names like it
- Compare Nessa and NeysaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sNessa peaked in 2016.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nessa since 1910.
- The top names of 2016The year the most babies were named Nessa.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nessa alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.