Clarissa

Meaning of Clarissa

Clarissa traces its gleaming roots to the Latin clarus, “bright” or “clear,” a meaning that echoes the Persian word roshan and conjures the crisp light of dawn over Isfahan’s turquoise domes. Medieval Europe added the -issa flourish as a term of endearment for devotees of Saint Clare, and literature later carried the torch—Samuel Richardson’s tragic heroine and Virginia Woolf’s cool-headed Mrs Dalloway both answer to the name. In modern American data, Clarissa behaves less like a meteor and more like a well-polished lantern: never soaring into the top ranks yet refusing to gutter out, it has hovered between the 200s and 700s for over a century. The name therefore suits parents who appreciate a steady, luminous presence rather than a fleeting blaze of fashion. Pronounced kluh-RIS-uh, it offers familiar sounds without being over-played, and its built-in nickname options—Clary, Rissa, or the brisk Claire—allow room for personal style.