Melissa
The story
Melissa means honey bee in Greek, from meli, honey, one of the sweetest meanings a name can carry. It reaches back into myth: Melissa was a nymph who, with her sister Amalthea, cared for the infant Zeus and, in some tellings, first taught people to keep bees and gather honey. Centuries later the enchantress Melissa appears in Ariosto's Renaissance epic Orlando Furioso as a good fairy who rescues the hero. So the name blends industry, sweetness and a touch of magic. In the United States Melissa was hugely popular and most common in the 1980s, a defining name of its generation, with the warm short forms Mel, Missy and Lissa. Graceful and kind at the root, Melissa gives a child the busy, golden gift of the bee and a place in stories two thousand years long.
Melissa in song
Melissa
The Allman Brothers Band (1972)
Gregg Allman wrote it back in 1967, years before the band existed, and sang it at his brother Duane's funeral. The Eat a Peach recording is the goodbye.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Melissa peaked in the 1980s.
Popularity in Brazil
122,131 people · the #266 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,664 · median age 8
Among people named Melissa living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 27,688 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Melissa
People given the name Melissa in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1970 to 1989. 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 Melissa deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Melissa 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 Melissa fits with your family’s names and surname.
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