Baby name
REVIVING
🇧🇷 🇩🇪 🇬🇧 Clarissa
/klah · RIS · ah/
Meaning
“Bright or famous”
Latinate elaboration of Clara, from Latin Clarus meaning bright or famous; the English novelist Samuel Richardson named his 1748 epistolary novel Clarissa, giving it strong literary associations.
Nicknames
clar · rissa
Vibe
strongwarmelegant
How it ages.
Literary roots from a major 18th-century novel; ages with quiet elegance.
The cultural moment.
Steady in Brazil and Germany through the late 20th century; reviving in the US and UK since 2015.