Gender Feminine
Usage English, Dutch, Ancient Greek [1], Greek Mythology
Scripts Μέλισσα(Ancient Greek)
Meaning & History
Means "bee" in Greek. In Greek mythology this was the name of a daughter of Procles, as well as an epithet of various Greek nymphs and priestesses. According to the early Christian writer Lactantius [2] this was the name of the sister of the nymph Amalthea, with whom she cared for the young Zeus. Later it appears in Ludovico Ariosto's 1516 poem Orlando Furioso [3] belonging to the fairy who helps Ruggiero escape from the witch Alcina. As an English given name, Melissa has been used since the 18th century.
Related Names
Popularity
Images
Honey bee ©People think this name is
formal natural wholesome refined
Name Days
Categories
1970s, A Song of Ice and Fire characters, animals, bugs, Desperate Housewives characters, fauna, Fringe characters, Full Metal Panic characters, Greek mythology, House of Cards US characters, insects, Looney Tunes characters, Lufia characters, Milo Murphy's Law characters, mythology, nature, nymphs, philosophers, plants, Puella Magi Madoka Magica characters, Rick and Morty characters, Sailor Moon characters, Six Feet Under characters, song titles, storms, Suikoden characters, The Golden Girls characters, The IT Crowd characters, The Roman Mysteries characters, top 10 in the US, top 100 Portugal, trendy, Wild Arms characters, William Faulkner characters, YouTubers
Sources & References
- Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, available from https://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/publications/.
- Page at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Divine_Institutes/Part_I.
- Page at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Orlando_Furioso/Canto_III.
