Clarissa

About Clarissa

Clarissa is a Latinate form of Clarice, ultimately connected with Latin clarus, meaning “clear,” “bright,” or “famous.” Pronounced kluh-RISS-uh, it has three syllables and a strong middle beat. Few names have such distinct literary associations: Clarissa Harlowe belongs to Samuel Richardson's eighteenth-century novel, while Clarissa Dalloway stands at the center of Virginia Woolf's modernist fiction.

Meaning and related forms

The name's history leads through Clarice and the Late Latin form Claritia to Clara. Clarissa expands that family with an -issa ending, giving it a longer rhythm than Clara or Claire. Clarisse is a French relative, and Clarisa is the Spanish form.

The repeated s is spoken as a single s sound. The first and last syllables are lighter than the central RISS, creating a different cadence from the short, initially stressed Clara. Clary could work as an informal shortening, while the complete name retains its distinctive three-part rhythm.

Clara and Clarice are historical relatives rather than merely similar-looking names. That relationship also links Clarissa with the wider European family of names built around the idea of brightness and clarity.

Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe

Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady appeared in 1747–48. Its heroine, Clarissa Harlowe, faces pressure from her family and becomes entangled with Robert Lovelace. The novel examines the power other people attempt to exercise over a young woman's choices.

Richardson tells the story through interwoven letters. That form allows events to appear through different voices, with characters explaining themselves, withholding information, and interpreting one another's behavior. The reader's understanding develops through the exchange rather than through a single detached narrator.

The result made Clarissa an important name in the history of the English novel. Its association is with a substantial, psychologically intricate work about family authority, desire, and the vulnerable position of women.

Woolf's Clarissa Dalloway

Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, published in 1925, gives the name another major literary life. Clarissa Dalloway prepares for an evening party while memories of earlier experiences and relationships enter her thoughts.

The novel concentrates on one day, allowing ordinary preparations to open into questions about the life Clarissa has chosen. The movement between present activity and remembered experience makes her inner life central to the book.

Although both literary Clarissas are women whose relationships shape their stories, they belong to very different periods and kinds of fiction. Together they give the name a literary range stretching from the eighteenth-century letter novel to twentieth-century modernism.

American popularity

Clarissa's strongest American female ranking was #237 in 1994. Its largest annual count came in 1995, with 1,201 births. The count was still 975 in 2000 before declining to 530 in 2010.

In 2025, 212 girls received Clarissa, ranking #1,114. Its American high point came centuries after Richardson's heroine and decades after Woolf's, adding a late-twentieth-century chapter to a much older name.

How popular is Clarissa?

In 2025, Clarissa ranked #1,114 among girls in the United States, with 212 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 1,201 in 1995. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.