Claryssa
Feminine name of Greek derivation signifying "bright" or "illustrious".
Name Census estimates that about 215 living Americans carry the first name Claryssa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Claryssa today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Claryssa births was 2000 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Claryssa. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
215
~ 1 in 1,594,206 Americans
Peak year
2000
18 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2017 SSA rank
#11,888
Tracked since 1986
Census
Claryssa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 216 people with the first name Claryssa, which placed it at #36,618 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#36,618
National first-name rank
People counted
216
216 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
50.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Claryssa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claryssa is Hispanic at 50.0%. The next largest groups are White (33.8%) and Black (9.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Claryssa described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Claryssa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino50.0% · 108
- White33.8% · 73
- Black or African American9.7% · 21
- Two or more races4.2% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 2
Popularity
Claryssa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Claryssa from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 92 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Claryssa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Claryssa by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Claryssa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Claryssas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Claryssa
The name Claryssa is a feminine variant of the name Clarissa, which is derived from the Latin name Clarissa or Claritia. These Latin names are believed to be derived from the Roman family name Clarus, meaning "bright" or "clear." The name may also be related to the Latin word "clarus," meaning "brilliant" or "illustrious."
The name Clarissa has been in use since ancient Roman times, and it gained popularity during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period. It was particularly favored among the aristocracy and upper classes in Europe, where it was seen as a name with a refined and elegant connotation.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Clarissa can be found in the 4th century, when Saint Clarissa, also known as Saint Clare of Assisi (1194-1253), founded the Order of Poor Ladies, later known as the Poor Clares. Saint Clarissa was a close friend of Saint Francis of Assisi and is revered as a patron saint of television, which is believed to be because her name means "clear vision."
Another notable historical figure with the name Clarissa was Clarissa Harlowe, the protagonist of the 18th-century novel "Clarissa" by Samuel Richardson. The novel, published in 1748, is considered one of the earliest and most influential works of the novel form in English literature.
In the 19th century, the name Clarissa was popular among the English aristocracy. One famous bearer of the name was Clarissa Eden (1920-2021), a British aristocrat and the niece of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. She was also an author and a prominent figure in British society.
Another notable Clarissa was Clarissa Pinkola Estés (born 1945), an American poet, psychoanalyst, and post-trauma specialist. She is best known for her book "Women Who Run With the Wolves," which explores the role of myths and stories in understanding the feminine psyche.
Throughout history, the name Claryssa has been less common than its original form, Clarissa. However, it has been used as a variant spelling, particularly in English-speaking countries. Some notable bearers of the name Claryssa include Claryssa Catalician, an American actress known for her roles in television shows like "The X-Files" and "Charmed," and Claryssa Fenn, a Canadian model and actress.
People
Claryssa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Claryssa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Claryssa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Claryssa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 215 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Claryssa going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,594,206 US residents.
Is Claryssa a common name?
We classify Claryssa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 220 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Claryssa most popular?
The single biggest year for Claryssa was 2000, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Claryssa is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Claryssa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 216 people with the name Claryssa, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,618 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Claryssa in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Claryssa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Claryssa leans strongly female. 216 people counted with this name were female (97.7%), compared with 5 male bearers (2.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Claryssa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claryssa is Hispanic at 50.0%. The next largest groups are White (33.8%) and Black (9.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Claryssa most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Claryssa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.0% (108 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Claryssa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Claryssa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Claryssa in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Claryssa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Claryssa in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Claryssa can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Claryssa?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.