Melissa
From the Greek word for "bee". Fewer than a thousand women in Poland carry it, so meeting one sticks in the memory, and it has been climbing lately: more girls got it last year than in most years before.
Melissa Pronunciation
What Melissa means
Where Melissa comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Melissa comes straight from the Greek word for a bee, μέλισσα. The insect gave the name its meaning. Greek writers used the same word for the priestesses who tended certain temples, women linked to honey and to the goddesses they served. The sense of "bee" belongs at the origin here rather than as a gloss added afterward.
English readers met the name through poetry and romance. In Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, printed in English by John Harington in 1591, Melissa is a good enchantress who guides and rescues. That literary route helped carry the name into ordinary English use, far from its Greek temple.
The bee never left. On a Polish class register Melissa reads as foreign yet easy to say, and at the urząd it fills a form without trouble. In Polish the name still points to pszczoła, the bee.
How many people are named Melissa
1 in 23217 women in Poland is named Melissa. 971 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #980 among female names.
Melissa's popularity over time
39 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #397 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2001.
Where parents choose Melissa
Melissa is most popular in Lubusz, 102% above the national average (9 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Greater Poland (+97%) and Lower Silesian (+84%). It is least common in Lublin and Podlaskie, 78% and 66% below average respectively.
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Lubusz
+102%1 in 5,517 babies
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Greater Poland
+97%1 in 5,664 babies
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Lower Silesian
+84%1 in 6,044 babies
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Lublin
−78%1 in 51,338 babies
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Podlaskie
−66%1 in 32,893 babies
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Opole
−52%1 in 23,048 babies
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Lubusz+102% 9 born1 in 5,517 babies+102%
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Greater Poland+97% 38 born1 in 5,664 babies+97%
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Lower Silesian+84% 26 born1 in 6,044 babies+84%
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West Pomeranian+19% 9 born1 in 9,381 babies+19%
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Lesser Poland+13% 23 born1 in 9,866 babies+13%
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Silesian+8% 22 born1 in 10,345 babies+8%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−8% 9 born1 in 12,153 babies−8%
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Masovian−9% 29 born1 in 12,216 babies−9%
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Łódź−21% 9 born1 in 14,080 babies−21%
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Subcarpathian−35% 7 born1 in 17,224 babies−35%
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Pomeranian−47% 7 born1 in 21,046 babies−47%
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Opole−52% 2 born1 in 23,048 babies−52%
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Podlaskie−66% 2 born1 in 32,893 babies−66%
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Lublin−78% 2 born1 in 51,338 babies−78%
Melissa as a middle name
Melissa is a first name for 971 women in Poland and a middle name for another 158, an 86/14 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 528th, between Dąbrówka (159) and Eve (156).
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#526 Doris159
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#527 Dąbrówka159
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#528 Melissa158
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#529 Eve156
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#530 Ingeborga156