Dessa
#6,908 in 2025Girls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Dessa has been given to 1,817 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #6,908 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2001, with 31 recorded.
Babies named Dessa, 2025
1 in 207,000
Dessa over time, 1880–2025
Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Dessa?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 207,000
- 16 of 3,315,165 births
- Among girls only
- 1 in 100,000
- <0.01% of girls
- Rank, 2025
- #6,908
- of 17,293 girls’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 143,620 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Dessa sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 143,620 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Dessa. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Dessas were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Dessa was born before 1959 — so the typical Dessa is around 66 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2000s
- 10.1% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 22.8%
- Spread across generations
- Recorded since 1950
- 1,028
- People you could plausibly meet
2000s — 10.1% of all recorded uses (183).
Is Dessa rising or falling?
Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.
- Rank vs 1 year ago
- +422
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- −994
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- −617
- Places dropped
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 0.80×
- Fewer babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 51.6%
- Peak was 2001 (31)
- Years since peak
- 24
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 32.8% average annual change
Spellings of Dessa
Dessa is not the most common spelling — Debra is, with 51.3% against Dessa's 0.17%.
Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.
Where Dessa is used
Across 1910–2025, Dessa was most concentrated in Alabama — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 1,564,262 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).
Most concentrated
- 1Alabama1 in —
- 2California1 in —
- 3Texas1 in —
Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Dessa has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Dessa around the world
Where Dessa ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.
- Canada2012–2015#3,185in 2015
- South Australia2008–2008#796in 2008
Popularity data from Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Dessa by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Dessa
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Dessa
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.