Humanverse

Nerea vs Nerissa

American parents have registered 1,977 Nerissas since 1880, against 126 Nereas. But in 2025 it was Nerea that was commoner, 11 babies to 9.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Nerea Nerissa

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

Of the 78 years in which either name was published, Nerissa for 72 years and Nerea for 6 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Nerea Nerissa
Total US births 1261,977
Most in one year 1473
Babies in 2025 119
Estimated living today 1301,900
Median age today 841
Peak year 20221979
Best rank 7,631st girls1,569th girls
Rank in 2025 8,860th10,107th
First recorded 19961915
Girls / boys 126 / 01,977 / 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 Nerissas alive today are over 41; half the Nereas are over 8. That is 33 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Nerea Nerissa
England and Wales 57110

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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