MEANING & HISTORY
What does Melissa mean?
Melissa is the Greek word for bee used as a personal name. It appears in classical stories and later European literature, including Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso.
Those associations help explain its survival as a name, but the lexical meaning is simply bee rather than honey princess or sweet woman. Honey is a natural association with the insect, not a license to replace the source word with a more elaborate invented translation.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
EnglishEtymology & source
From Ancient Greek μέλισσα (mélissa, “bee, honey, or honeybee”). In Ireland it is sometimes used as a feminine form of the Gaelic male name Maol Íosa (literally “servant of Jesus”).
A female given name from Ancient Greek, popular in the latter half of the 20th century.
Wiktionary: Melissa (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Melissa
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Melissa de la Cruz
American writer
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Melissa Mendez
Filipina actress (born 1964)
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Wikidata
5
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Melissa de la Cruz, Melissa Mendez
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Melissa in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Melissa
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Marissa♀Variant of Marisa, commonly a Maria–Luisa compound
- Melina·Elaborated Mel; a Greek honey connection is documented
- Melinda♀Created from Mel names with an inda ending
- Nerissa♀Shakespearean name, possibly from Greek sea-nymph vocabulary
- Alyssa♀Variant of Alicia, with an alyssum flower association
- Melba♀Literary stage name formed from Melbourne
- Meliton♂Greek honey-name, from meli
- Melitona♀Feminine Méliton-name form; proposed honey-related root
What rhymes with Melissa?
Matches share a dictionary-supplied rhyme key in the stated language. Check the recorded reading; another language or accent can change the rhyme.
Names with a similar written ending
Spelling suggestions; these are not verified phonetic rhymes.
Explore Melissa further
Follow the sources
- Wikidata given-name item Q830357 — Melissa (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Melissa de la Cruz (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q830357 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wikidata — Melissa Mendez (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q830357 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Melissa (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Behind the Name — Melissa (opens in a new tab)
Consulted account of the name’s formation, relevant root elements, or explicitly linked base name.