Humanverse

Lisa vs Lissett

American parents have registered 970,012 Lisas since 1880, against 608 Lissetts. Lisa is still ahead, with 256 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lisa against Lissett, 1880 to 2025 0 20k 40k 60k 80k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lisa Lissett

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Lisa has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1886 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2008, when Lisa had 510 and Lissett had 13.

Side by side

  Lisa Lissett
Total US births 970,012608
Most in one year 60,44828
Babies in 2025 256under 5
Estimated living today 876,000590
Median age today 5735
Peak year 19651999
Best rank 1st girls4,088th girls
Rank in 2025 987thunranked
First recorded 18861967
Girls / boys 967,229 / 2,783608 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Lisas alive today are over 57; half the Lissetts are over 35. That is 22 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Lisa and Lissett.