← Back to The Name Registry
Girl

Melissa

As a girl's name, Melissa traces back to Greek, where it is understood to mean "Honey bee". It had its heyday in the 1970s and has mostly fallen out of use since. Today, it is a household name in the registry. It has appeared in U.S. birth records in nearly every decade since 1900, a genuinely long run.

GreekHoney bee
GreekBee, associated with a nymph in Greek myth
Births by decade
1900s
323
1910s
516
1920s
527
1930s
665
1940s
2,839
1950s
22,320
1960s
119,518
1970s
254,177
1980s
218,824
1990s
90,244
2000s
32,676
2010s
12,206
Peaked in the 1970s · 754,835 total U.S. births since 1900