Melissa is a Greek name that derived from the word ‘mélissa’ for ‘bee’. In Greek mythology, Melissa was a nymph who discovered and taught the use of honey.
Melissa is a first name typically given to girls, but in rare cases also used as a boys name.
The name Melissa isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all girls names, Melissa ranks 245. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn girls, approximately 8 were named Melissa. In total, there are currently 752,709 people – children, adults and seniors – named Melissa living in the United States, which is approximately 0.22 % of the entire population.
Melissa is a Greek name that derived from the word ‘mélissa’ for ‘bee’. In Greek mythology, Melissa was a nymph who discovered and taught the use of honey.
In English-speaking countries,... this name has been in use since the 18th century.
History tends to focus on the most famous and best. But even those who play second fiddle leave their mark: Melissa is one of those names without which the orchestra would be incomplete. In fact, Melissa has reached the SmartGenius top ranking #2 more than once, although the last time was some while ago, towards the end of the past century in 1979. But even though the peak of its popularity was a few decades ago, the name Melissa has been given to newborn girls every year since records began. Melissa is of exceptional enduring popularity, conveying the special vibes of the 80s and 90s of the 20th century.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Melissa was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
The peak of popularity of the name Melissa is already some time ago, but the name has nevertheless arrived in the 21st century. In 2022 it ranked at #344 in our statistics - maybe a far cry from the time when your grandparents and parents were much younger and Melissa made it into the top ten more than once, but: traditional names often turn out to be parennial favorites – so, perhaps it's only a matter of time before Melissa reaches a new high.
Wherever you go, wherever you live – there’s a good chance to meet Melissa. Because: There are women and girls named Melissa in every state in the USA. This may sound quite unspectacular at first, but in fact, of the more than 50,000 different female first names that occur in the USA, just 537 are recorded in each individual state, so the name Melissa is definitely something very special. In some regions it even makes it into the top 100 of the most popular female first names, for example in Arizona, where Melissa ranks on place 13. The greatest chance of meeting Melissa, however, is in Alaska, where one in 142 girls and women bears this beautiful name – that is far above average – in the entire USA it is only one in 205 women and girls and in Mississippi, where the name is least represented in relation to the population, you even have to ask an average of 281 women and girls for their name before you once get Melissa as an answer.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter M is a quite popular first letter for girls' names. That’s because 8.5% of all common girls’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letters A and S are more common for girls' names.
With seven letters, the name Melissa has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
Therefore: As 8.5% of all girls' names start with an M, this initial letter occurs nearly 2.5-times as often as all 26 letters on average – and the most common one of all the girls’ names starting with M is Mary.
If your name is Melissa and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Melissa, you can simply say:
Mouse
Elephant
Lion
Igloo
Sun
Sun
Apple
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Melissa
Melissa
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
M
E
L
I
S
S
A
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
M
E
L
I
S
S
A
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Melissa sounds like this:
