Malisa

Meaning of Malisa

Malisa, a feminine given name rooted in Hellenic etymology as a phonetic and orthographic variant of Melissa (Greek μελισσα “honeybee”), features a single-L modification that exemplifies the orthographic simplification trends of late 20th-century Anglo-American naming praxis. Phonologically realized as /məˈliːsə/, the name’s iambic meter and bilabial nasal onset confer a balanced prosodic pattern consonant with English phonotactic preferences. Morphological data from Michigan vital records reveal an absence of entries in the early 1970s (1971–1973), succeeded by a modest yet steady usage from 1974 through 1978—annual occurrences ranging from five to ten and percentile ranks between 174 and 214. Lexicographically, Malisa retains the semantic valence of industrious sweetness derived from its Greek root, aligning it with apicultural symbolism and scholarly discourse on melissology. Thus, Malisa occupies a technical intersection of classical linguistic heritage and modern naming innovation, appealing to those who seek both historical resonance and nuanced distinctiveness.