Name Awesome

Lise

Girls' name

My God is an oath, through Lisa

Lise has been given to 2,791 babies in the U.S. since 1922. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1959, with 157 recorded.

Babies named Lise, 2024

1 in 669,000

Lise over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Lise: meaning, origin, and history

My God is an oath, through Lisa

French, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Latin and Low German

What Lise means

Lise belongs to the name family reached through Lise → Lisa → Elisabeth. Its meaning is “my God is an oath”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From the French, and possible also from Scandinavian, Lise. Variant of more common English Lisa.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Lise (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Lise is used in English, Atayal, Danish, French and Norwegian Bokmål. Its origins include French, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Latin and Low German.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Lisa, Elisabeth, Élisabeth, Louise and Elisabet.

Pronunciation and spelling

In French, Lise is pronounced /liz/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,791 girls were recorded with the name Lise between 1922 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 157 in 1959; its best national rank was #819 in 1959.

How common is Lise?

Lise had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 669,000
5 of 3,342,801 births
Among girls only
1 in 324,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
463,412 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Lise sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2024 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 463,412 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Lise. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Lises were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Lise was born before 1961 — so the typical Lise is around 64 today.

Median birth year
1961
About 64 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
38.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
2.0%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,667
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 38.8% of all recorded uses (1,084).

Is Lise 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1959 (157)
Years since peak
66
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#819
1959

Spellings of Lise

Lise is not the most common spelling — Lisa is, with 26.4% against Lise's 0.08%.

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 Lise is used

Across 1910–2025, Lise was most concentrated in New Hampshire — about 1 in 7,143 girls, against 1 in 86,107 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

014 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New Hampshire1 in 7,143
  2. 2Maine1 in 16,667
  3. 3Vermont1 in 16,667
  4. 4Rhode Island1 in 33,333
  5. 5California1 in 50,000
  6. 6Connecticut1 in 50,000
  7. 7Massachusetts1 in 50,000
  8. 8New York1 in 50,000

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. Lise has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Lise around the world

Where Lise 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.

  • England & Wales
    1997–2018
    #5,666
    in 2018
  • France
    1900–2025
    #95
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #246
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2023
    #3,391
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1961–2013
    #818
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Lise

People whose public names include Lise, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Lise in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Lise. Linked forms have their own page here.

LizIlsaIlseIlzeLisaLizaTineBetsyBettyEliseLieseLieslLiisaBetinaIsabelIzabelLieselBettinaElspethIzabelaLisetteElisabetElizabetIsabella

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Lise by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#819
1959
Peak year
1959
157 that year
First recorded
1922
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
2,791
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Lise

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

LishaLissaLissetAliseJeniseLisAniseLisethLisbethLisetJaniseRiseLisetteLisandraLissethDenniseLisbetLissiePraiseBlaiseKaliseLissetteAnaliseCerise

Names with a curve like Lise

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Lise, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

DebbiCathiMerriDebiBeckieRoxaneTariDebbraJayeGeralynTereseMigdalia

Sibling names for Lise

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Lise

Top names of 1959, Lise's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1959Girls' names starting with LDanish Girl NamesElizabeth Variations & NicknamesScientist NamesShort French Girl Names