How rare is the name Malissa?

6,963 people in the United States have the first name Malissa, about 1 in 43,377. It ranks #3,141 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census.

first name

MALISSA

#3,141

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
6,963
About
1 in 43,377
This common or more
81.7%
Who bears it

Of the 6,963 people named Malissa, 65.9% reported their origin as White, 14.3% as Black and 11.4% as Hispanic or Latino. Virtually all are female (99.9%). These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.

Malissa peaked in 1979, when 307 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
18802025
Peak year
1979
Births that year
307
In 2025*
8 ▼97%
Recorded as
almost entirely female

At least 8,866 babies have been given the name since 1880. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero. * 2025 is the newest year published and it undercounts: a card application is filed some time after a birth.

Malissa by decade

Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1880s, when it ranked #884. The largest share of babies named Malissa, 44.2%, were born between 1965 and 1980, Generation X's birth years.

1880s#884185
1890s#1,100192
1900s#1,322196
1910s#2,317250
1920s#2,901265
1930s#4,211121
1940s#4,009149
1950s#3,225293
1960s#1,4941,403
1970s#1,1122,657
1980s#1,5381,804
1990s#2,861902
2000s#7,564302
2010s#15,533113
2020s#21,87134
Before 19014.6%
Greatest Generation 1901–277.3%
Silent Generation 1928–452.6%
Baby boom 1946–648.1%
Generation X 1965–8044.2%
Millennials 1981–9626.4%
Generation Z 1997–125.6%
2013 and later1.3%

Rank counts both sexes together, among every name SSA recorded that decade; the number under it is births. The 2020s run only to 2025. Generation years follow Pew Research Center, which has not named a generation after 2012.

Where Malissa is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Malissa has been most common in California (1.7×), Kentucky (1.7×), and Oklahoma (1.6×), and least common in Wisconsin (0.36×).

4,781 births recorded by state, 1910–2025. 2× means twice as common as nationally. States with fewer than 30 such births are left blank, and SSA withholds any year with fewer than 5 in a state, so small states read low.

Either side of Malissa

#3,139 Eliot · 6,976#3,139 Jeana · 6,976#3,142 Memphis · 6,955#3,142 Seamus · 6,955

Spelled almost the same

8 first names in the 2020 Census spelled within a letter or two of Malissa, most common first.

#3,615 Malika · 5,656#6,832 Malisa · 2,303#18,671 Malasia · 575#18,954 Malisha · 564#21,417 Maluisa · 474#23,426 Malyssa · 418#36,929 Malissia · 213#37,052 Malicia · 212

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