Lisa
Meaning
consecrated to God
Famously borne by Lisa Leslie.
The story
Lisa lives inside Elizabeth, the two middle syllables set free, and for centuries it stayed politely in the longer name's shadow. Art made it immortal early: around 1503, Lisa del Giocondo, the young wife of a Florentine silk merchant, sat for Leonardo da Vinci, and the world has been looking at her ever since; the Mona in Mona Lisa is monna, old Italian for my lady. America made it a phenomenon much later. Lisa was the country's number one girls' name from 1962 through 1969 and outranked Elizabeth itself from 1958 to 1978. When Elvis and Priscilla Presley named their daughter Lisa Marie in 1968, the King was not setting the fashion but joining one already in its seventh year on the throne. The reign ended almost as fast as it began, which is why Lisa now names a generation as surely as it names a person.
Lisa around the world
One shared root links 26 names across 6 languages.
Shared root: from Hebrew Elisheva "God is my oath"; medieval Iberia split off Isabel, and the nursery split off nearly everything else
The constellation
19 more branches of this family
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Lisa peaked in the 1960s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
3,681 people · the #3,388 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 55,556 · median age 19
Among people named Lisa living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 654 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Lisa
People given the name Lisa in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1960 to 1979. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Lisa deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Lisa truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Lisa fits with your family’s names and surname.
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