Name Awesome

Risa

#5,674 in 2025Girls' name

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Risa has been given to 4,177 babies in the U.S. since 1942. In 2025 it ranked #5,674 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1962, with 131 recorded.

Babies named Risa, 2025

1 in 151,000

Risa over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Risa: meaning, origin, and history

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Japanese

What Risa means

Risa is documented with more than one possible Japanese character combination. The Latin-letter spelling records a pronunciation; it does not specify one unique kanji spelling or one universal meaning.

Possible character meanings include reason, logic, village, sand, gravel, thread, silk.

Origin, language, and formation

Risa is used in English and French. Its origins include Japanese.

Risa comes through Japanese りさ.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Risa is pronounced /ˈɹi(ː)zə/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,177 girls were recorded with the name Risa between 1942 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 131 in 1962; its best national rank was #909 in 1966.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #7,878 in 2020 to #5,674 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #7,538 in 2015 to #5,674 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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Risa?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 151,000
22 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 73,100
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#5,674
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
104,451 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Risa 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 104,451 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Risa. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Risas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Risa was born before 1972 — so the typical Risa is around 53 today.

Median birth year
1972
About 53 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
25.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
14.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
3,996
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 25.7% of all recorded uses (1,073).

Is Risa 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
+1,847
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+2,204
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,864
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.38×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
16.8%
Peak was 1962 (131)
Years since peak
63
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
27.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#909
1966

Spellings of Risa

Risa is not the most common spelling — Lisa is, with 18.7% against Risa'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 Risa is used

Across 1910–2025, Risa was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 14,286 girls, against 1 in 64,090 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

07 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 14,286
  2. 2California1 in 50,000
  3. 3Florida1 in 100,000
  4. 4Illinois1 in 100,000
  5. 5Massachusetts1 in 100,000
  6. 6New Jersey1 in 100,000
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in 100,000
  8. 8Texas1 in 100,000

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

Risa around the world

Where Risa 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
    1996–2019
    #5,591
    in 2019
  • Canada
    1991–1996
    #2,558
    in 1996
  • South Australia
    2006–2006
    #782
    in 2006

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Risa

People whose public names include Risa, 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.

Risa by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#5,674
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 2,204
Best rank ever
#909
1966
Peak year
1962
131 that year
First recorded
1942
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,177
Count in 2025
22

Names similar to Risa

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

NisaIsaRishaAnisaRiseBrisaJulisaLarisaMisaJalisaRaisaLuisaAisaEloisaLeisaYulisaArisaTisaAnalisaClarisaKaisaParisaAlisaRishika

Names with a curve like Risa

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

RoniMartiCyndiReneaLinetteJolynnLianeLezlieLynelleSynthiaJackiLeesa

Sibling names for Risa

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 Risa

Top names of 1962, Risa's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1966Girls' names starting with R