Marissa
Meaning
“English and Dutch variant of Marisa, a combination of Maria and Luisa”
The story
Marissa is a spelling variant, not a secure Latin word for the sea. Its documented line passes through Marisa, an Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese combination of Maria and Luisa. The double s changes the silhouette, not the family tree. In the published US record, about 400 babies received the name in the 1950s, and the count builds through the next three decades. About 51,300 babies received the name in the 1990s and 32,100 in the 2000s, before the count fell to about 7,400 in the 2010s and roughly 1,000 so far in the 2020s. That curve gives Marissa a clear late-twentieth-century profile. Its familiar sound sits close to Melissa and Alyssa, but its documented family line runs through Marisa, Maria, and Luisa rather than through a rhyme or a maritime image.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Marissa peaked in the 1990s and the 2000s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
1,337 people · the #6,809 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 142,857 · median age 21
Among people named Marissa living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2000s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 53 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Marissa
Most people given the name Marissa in the United States were born between 1990 and 2009. The Marissa you meet today is most often in her 20s or 30s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Marissa deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Marissa 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 Marissa fits with your family’s names and surname.
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