Melissa

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Manisa in TR Türkiye, Manasa in IN India, มาริสา in TH Thailand and Mëlïssä in EC Ecuador.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 15 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Melissa is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name536K records spelled Melissa2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Italy

  Also written Mélissa

• Polish given name67K records spelled Melissa92 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Poland, Türkiye, Russia

  Languages: Polish, Russian, Turkish

  Also written Мелисса, Melisa, Мелиса, Меліса, Мелісса

• Indonesian given name35K records spelled Melissa4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay, Malagasy

  Also written Mélissa

• Greek given name19K records spelled Melissa8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Greece, United States, United Kingdom, Cyprus

  Also written Melisa, Μελισσα, Mélissa, Μελίσα, Μελισσά

• Finnish given name18K records spelled Melissa6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, United States, Estonia, United Kingdom

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Mélissa, Mëlïssä, Melĭssa

• Hungarian given name7.8K records spelled Melissa4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Hungary, United States, United Kingdom, Slovenia

  Also written Mélissa, Mëlïssä, Mélíssá

70 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Melissa is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• Greek, ‘bee’. Aname sometimes found in Ireland.

  as a name·Irish first names

• In English, A plant of the genus Melissa, especially lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), often used medicinally.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Portuguese, a female given name from Ancient Greek, equivalent to English Melissa

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Swedish, Melissa är ett grekiskt namn med betydelsen ’bi’. Namnet bärs av en gestalt i Ariostos diktverk Den rasande Roland (1532). Det har varit ett populärt namn de senaste årtion dena. En variant av namnet är Melitta – känt genom melittafiltret för kaffebryggning, namngivet efter den tyska uppfinnaren Melitta Bentz (1873–1950). I den finlands svenska almanackan 5 maj.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In French, Du nom grec de la mélisse, « plante à feuilles d’abeille »; lié symboliquement à l’abeille et rapproché de Déborah.

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Melissa Leob. 1960USAmerican actress
• Melissa Sue Andersonb. 1962USactress
• Melissa Gilbertb. 1964USAmerican actress
• Melissa Georgeb. 1976AUAustralian actress
• Melissa Rauchb. 1980USAmerican actress
• Phoenix Marieb. 1981USnot in their usual nameAmerican pornographic actress
• Missy Peregrymb. 1982CAnot in their usual nameCanadian actress
• Melissa Benoistb. 1988USAmerican actress and singer
• Melissa Barrerab. 1990MXMexican actress
• Missy Franklinb. 1995USnot in their usual nameAmerican swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, world champion, world record-holder

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,485 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Melissa?

We estimate roughly 893 thousand people bear Melissa (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Melissa have the most bearers?

Melissa is most frequently recorded in Türkiye, where it is most often spelled manisa.

How common is Melissa compared with other names?

In Singapore, Melissa is the 25th most common given name of 46,862 given names recorded there.

Is Melissa a male or female name?

Melissa is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Melissa mean?

Recorded meaning: Greek for ‘bee’; a name sometimes found in Ireland.