Lisa
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "consecrated to God".
Name Census estimates that about 825,085 living Americans carry the first name Lisa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lisa today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lisa births was 1965 (60,446 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lisa. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Lisa with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Lisa is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 2,784 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Lisa have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
825K
~ 1 in 415 Americans
Peak year
1965
60,446 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2000 SSA rank
#985
Tracked since 1886
Census
Lisa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 864,251 people with the first name Lisa, which placed it at #36 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#36
National first-name rank
People counted
864K
864,251 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
286.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lisa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lisa is White at 81.0%. The next largest groups are Black (6.8%) and Hispanic (6.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Lisa described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Lisa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.0% · 700,424
- Black or African American6.8% · 59,081
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 53,837
- Two or more races2.8% · 24,080
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 21,601
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5,228
Gender
Gender distribution for Lisa
Out of the 969,749 babies given the name Lisa since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Lisa as a male name
- Ranked #8,759 in 2000
- 7 male births in 2000
- Peak: 1965 (177 births)
Lisa as a female name
- Ranked #985 in 2024
- 262 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1965 (60,269 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lisa appears almost entirely female. Of the 864,260 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Lisa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lisa from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 498,275 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lisa by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Lisa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lisas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Lisa, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18,937 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lisa
The name Lisa is derived from the Hebrew name Elizabeth, which means "consecrated to God" or "my God is an oath." The name's origins can be traced back to the Old Testament, where it appears as Elisheva, the wife of Aaron, the brother of Moses.
In ancient times, the name Elizabeth was popular among Jews and later adopted by Christians. The abbreviated form, Lisa, emerged in the Middle Ages as a diminutive or pet form of the name Elizabeth. It was particularly common in Italy, where it was spelled as Lisa or Lisa.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lisa can be found in the 13th-century poem "Divina Commedia" by Dante Alighieri, where a character named Lisa is mentioned. In the 14th century, the Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio also featured a character named Lisa in his famous work "Decameron."
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Lisa. One of the most famous was Lisa del Giocondo, an Italian noblewoman who is believed to have been the subject of Leonardo da Vinci's iconic painting, the Mona Lisa, completed around 1506.
Another significant figure was Lisa Gherardini, an Italian woman who lived in Florence in the 15th century and was the wife of a wealthy silk merchant. Some historians believe she may have been the model for the Mona Lisa, although this is still debated.
In the 16th century, Lisa Lotti was an Italian painter and architect who was one of the few women artists of the Renaissance period. She was born in 1555 and is known for her architectural designs and paintings.
In more recent times, the name Lisa has been associated with several influential figures, such as Lisa Kudrow, the American actress best known for her role as Phoebe Buffay on the popular sitcom "Friends." Kudrow was born in 1963.
Another notable Lisa is Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of music legend Elvis Presley. She was born in 1968 and has pursued a career as a singer and songwriter.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Lisa
People
Lisa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lisa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Lisa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lisa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 825,085 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lisa going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 415 US residents.
Is Lisa a common name?
We classify Lisa as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 969,749 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lisa most popular?
The single biggest year for Lisa was 1965, when 60,446 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lisa is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lisa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 864,251 people with the name Lisa, or 286.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Lisa in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Lisa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lisa appears almost entirely female. Of the 864,260 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Lisa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lisa is White at 81.0%. The next largest groups are Black (6.8%) and Hispanic (6.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Lisa most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lisa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.0% (700,424 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Lisa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lisa a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Lisa in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Lisa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lisa in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Lisa can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Lisa?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Lisa at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.