Parissa
A feminine name of Persian origin meaning "fairy-like" or "pixie-esque".
Name Census estimates that about 89 living Americans carry the first name Parissa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Parissa today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Parissa births was 1988 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Parissa. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Parissa with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Parissa. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
89
~ 1 in 3,851,172 Americans
Peak year
1988
8 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2015 SSA rank
#18,472
Tracked since 1986
Census
Parissa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 235 people with the first name Parissa, which placed it at #34,648 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
#34,648
National first-name rank
People counted
235
235 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Parissa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Parissa is White at 63.0%. The next largest groups are Black (12.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.8%). 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 Parissa 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 Parissa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.0% · 148
- Black or African American12.3% · 29
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.8% · 23
- Two or more races7.7% · 18
- Hispanic or Latino7.2% · 17
Popularity
Parissa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Parissa from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 39 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Parissa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Parissa 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 Parissa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Parissas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Parissa
The name Parissa is of Persian origin, originating from the ancient Iranian language of Farsi. It is believed to have derived from the word "Pari," which means a fairy or celestial being in Persian mythology. The earliest known usage of the name dates back to the 6th century BCE, during the Achaemenid Empire in ancient Persia.
Parissa was a common name among the nobility and upper classes of Persian society. It is mentioned in several ancient Persian texts, including the Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran written by the renowned poet Ferdowsi in the late 10th century CE. In this epic, Parissa is described as a beautiful and virtuous princess.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Parissa was Parissa, the daughter of the Sassanid king Khosrau I, who ruled Persia from 531 to 579 CE. She was renowned for her beauty and intelligence, and her name became a symbol of grace and elegance among the Persian aristocracy.
During the Islamic Golden Age, which spanned from the 8th to the 13th century CE, the name Parissa continued to be popular among Persian scholars and poets. One notable figure was Parissa Ganjavi, a 12th-century Persian poet and mystic from the city of Ganja (now in present-day Azerbaijan). Her poetry explored themes of love, spirituality, and the human condition.
In the 16th century, Parissa was the name of a renowned Persian calligrapher and artist from the city of Shiraz. Her intricate calligraphic works and illustrations adorned many Persian manuscripts and books of the time, and she is considered one of the most accomplished female artists of the Safavid dynasty.
Another historical figure with the name Parissa was Parissa Khanum, a 19th-century Iranian princess and feminist activist. She was a strong advocate for women's education and rights, and played a significant role in establishing the first girls' school in Tehran during the Qajar dynasty.
Throughout history, the name Parissa has been associated with beauty, grace, and artistic expression, reflecting its roots in Persian mythology and culture. While its popularity may have waxed and waned over time, it remains a beloved name in the Persian-speaking world and among those with Iranian heritage.
People
Parissa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Parissa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Parissa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Parissa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 89 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Parissa 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 3,851,172 US residents.
Is Parissa a common name?
We classify Parissa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 62.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 92 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Parissa most popular?
The single biggest year for Parissa was 1988, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Parissa is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Parissa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 235 people with the name Parissa, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,648 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 Parissa 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 Parissa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Parissa appears almost entirely female. Of the 228 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Parissa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Parissa is White at 63.0%. The next largest groups are Black (12.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.8%). 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 Parissa most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Parissa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.0% (148 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 Parissa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Parissa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Parissa 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 Parissa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Parissa 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 Parissa 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 have the name Parissa?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Parissa, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.