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Malissa

#11,542 in 2025Girls' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Malissa has been given to 8,866 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #11,542 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1979, with 307 recorded.

Babies named Malissa, 2025

1 in 414,000

Malissa over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Malissa: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Malissa means

Malissa is a given name.

The naming story behind Malissa

Wikidata records Malissa as a female given name. The entity identifier is Q102186814, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 8,866 girls were recorded with the name Malissa between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 307 in 1979; its best national rank was #348 in 1880.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #11,742 in 2020 to #11,542 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #9,908 in 2015 to #11,542 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Malissa?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 414,000
8 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 201,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#11,542
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
287,238 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Malissa 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 2025 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 287,238 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Malissa. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Malissas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Malissa was born before 1974 — so the typical Malissa is around 51 today.

Median birth year
1974
About 51 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
30.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
4.7%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
7,508
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 30.0% of all recorded uses (2,657).

Is Malissa 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
+200
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,634
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.73×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
2.6%
Peak was 1979 (307)
Years since peak
46
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
37.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#348
1880

Spellings of Malissa

Malissa is not the most common spelling — Melissa is, with 45.0% against Malissa's 0.53%.

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 Malissa is used

Across 1910–2025, Malissa was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 20,000 girls, against 1 in 31,694 across all states with data. It was least common in Nebraska (1 in —).

05 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 20,000
  2. 2Kentucky1 in 20,000
  3. 3Michigan1 in 20,000
  4. 4Oklahoma1 in 20,000
  5. 5Florida1 in 25,000
  6. 6Georgia1 in 25,000
  7. 7Indiana1 in 25,000
  8. 8Missouri1 in 25,000

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

Malissa around the world

Where Malissa 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
    1996–2016
    #4,763
    in 2016
  • Scotland
    1988–1999
    #621
    in 1999
  • France
    1985–2022
    #7,130
    in 2022
  • Canada
    1991–2000
    #2,489
    in 2000
  • South Australia
    1968–1994
    #716
    in 1994

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

Malissa in other languages

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

MalisaMelissa

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

Malissa by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#11,542
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 200
Best rank ever
#348
1880
Peak year
1979
307 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
8,866
Count in 2025
8

Names similar to Malissa

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

MaliyahMalyssaMalayahMalorieMalayaMaleahMalindaMalaysiaMalaniMalaikaMaliahMalikaMallorieMalinaMalenaAllyssaTeressaMallieMalloriJanessaMalkaMalaynaMalloryMalerie

Names with a curve like Malissa

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

StaciaCristyShandaCariJeannaKerrieDemetriaKarrieDanelleJanelLatriciaHolli

Sibling names for Malissa

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 Malissa

Top names of 1979, Malissa's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1880Girls' names starting with M