Melissa
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "honey bee".
Name Census estimates that about 690,697 living Americans carry the first name Melissa. It sits at #378 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Melissa today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Melissa births was 1979 (34,179 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Melissa. 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 Melissa with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Melissa is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 2,495 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Melissa have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
691K
~ 1 in 496 Americans
Peak year
1979
34,179 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2015 SSA rank
#378
Tracked since 1880
Census
Melissa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 675,225 people with the first name Melissa, which placed it at #54 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
#54
National first-name rank
People counted
675K
675,225 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
223.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Melissa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Melissa is White at 73.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.4%) and Black (4.2%). 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 Melissa 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 Melissa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.9% · 498,875
- Hispanic or Latino16.4% · 110,797
- Black or African American4.2% · 28,194
- Two or more races3.1% · 20,708
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 12,239
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 4,412
Gender
Gender distribution for Melissa
Out of the 761,881 babies given the name Melissa 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.
Melissa as a male name
- Ranked #13,380 in 2015
- 5 male births in 2015
- Peak: 1980 (138 births)
Melissa as a female name
- Ranked #378 in 2024
- 825 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1979 (34,050 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Melissa appears almost entirely female. Of the 675,224 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Melissa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Melissa from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 254,162 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Melissa 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 Melissa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Melissas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Melissa, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 14,837 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Melissa
The name Melissa has its origins in Greek mythology and language. Derived from the Greek word "melissa," meaning "honey bee," the name was initially associated with the priestesses of the goddess Demeter, who were known as "melissae" or "honey bees."
In ancient Greek culture, bees were revered for their industrious nature and their role in pollinating plants. The priestesses of Demeter were called melissae because they were believed to possess the same diligence and sweetness as honey bees. The name Melissa was therefore a symbolic representation of these qualities.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Melissa can be found in the writings of the ancient Greek poet Theocritus, who lived in the 3rd century BC. In his work, he mentions a character named Melissa, a nymph who was transformed into a bee by the goddess Demeter.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Melissa. One of the most famous was Melissa, the mother of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius, who ruled from 138 to 161 AD. Another was Melissa, a 4th-century Christian martyr who was executed for her faith during the persecutions under the Roman emperor Maximian.
In the Middle Ages, the name Melissa appeared in various literary works, including the 12th-century French romance "Roman de la Rose" by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. The name also gained popularity during the Renaissance period, with several notable figures bearing the name, such as Melissa Harsley (1589-1658), an English poet and translator.
Other notable historical figures named Melissa include Melissa Johnson (1619-1682), one of the first English settlers in the American colonies, and Melissa Hayden (1923-2006), an American ballet dancer and choreographer who performed with the American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet.
Melissa has remained a popular name throughout the centuries, with its association with the natural world and its symbolic representation of diligence, sweetness, and industriousness. Despite its ancient roots, the name has endured and continues to be widely used today, a testament to its enduring appeal and cultural significance.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Melissa
People
Melissa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Melissa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Melissa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Melissa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 690,697 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Melissa 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 496 US residents.
Is Melissa a common name?
We classify Melissa 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, 761,881 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Melissa most popular?
The single biggest year for Melissa was 1979, when 34,179 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Melissa is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Melissa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 675,225 people with the name Melissa, or 223.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #54 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 Melissa 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 Melissa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Melissa appears almost entirely female. Of the 675,224 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 Melissa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Melissa is White at 73.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.4%) and Black (4.2%). 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 Melissa most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Melissa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.9% (498,875 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 Melissa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Melissa a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Melissa 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 Melissa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Melissa 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 Melissa 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 many people are called Melissa?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.