Melissa Girl
How popular is Melissa?
#419 girl name in 2025
747 baby girls were named Melissa in the US in 2025, making it the 419th most popular girl name.
Melissa popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #419 for girls (▼ 40 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 747 girls |
| 10-year trend | Falling (-42% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #253 in 2015, #349 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 1979 (34,050 girls) |
| Highest rank | #2 in 1977 (3 years at that rank) |
| First recorded | 1880 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 0% boys, 100% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.5% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Melissa counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Melissa family of names ranked #386 for girls in 2025 (#364 the year before), with 810 babies in all.
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Melissa is most popular
Babies named Melissa per 1,000 girls born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
- Massachusetts: 1.0 per 1,000 (125 girls)
- California: 1.0 per 1,000 (812 girls)
- Nevada: 0.9 per 1,000 (41 girls)
- Washington: 0.9 per 1,000 (126 girls)
- Connecticut: 0.8 per 1,000 (44 girls)
Melissa by decade
| Decade | Baby girls | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 427 | #251 |
| 1890s | 399 | #370 |
| 1900s | 323 | #502 |
| 1910s | 516 | #610 |
| 1920s | 526 | #888 |
| 1930s | 666 | #628 |
| 1940s | 2,837 | #276 |
| 1950s | 22,293 | #127 |
| 1960s | 119,202 | #5 |
| 1970s | 253,267 | #2 |
| 1980s | 217,922 | #4 |
| 1990s | 89,990 | #20 |
| 2000s | 32,625 | #71 |
| 2010s | 14,272 | #156 |
| 2020s | 4,863 | #349 |
Girl names about as popular as Melissa
Questions
- Is Melissa a boy or girl name?
- Melissa is mostly a girl name. Over the last 10 years, 100% of babies named Melissa were girls.
- How popular is the name Melissa?
- 747 baby girls were named Melissa in the US in 2025, making it the 419th most popular girl name.
- When was Melissa most popular?
- Melissa peaked in 1979, when 34,050 girls were given the name. Its highest rank was #2, held for 3 years starting in 1977.
- How many people are named Melissa?
- 762,623 babies have been named Melissa in the US since 1880. We estimate about 722,600 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 47.
- Where is Melissa most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Melissa was most common in Massachusetts, at 1.0 of every 1,000 girls born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.