Corissa

Meaning of Corissa

Corissa, a feminine appellation of Anglo-American usage, represents a modern morphological elaboration of the classical Greek root κόρη (korē), signifying “maiden,” with parallel antecedents in the French Corinne—immortalized by Madame de Staël’s early nineteenth-century novel—thereby situating the name within a continuum of literary and mythological resonance. The addition of the suffix -issa engenders a distinctive phonetic profile while preserving the semantic underpinnings of youthful purity and classical import; in contemporary English it is rendered /kəˈrɪsə/, reflecting standard stress patterns. Empirical data drawn from Pennsylvania birth records between 1974 and 1995 reveal a consistent yet modest presence of five to ten annual registrations, corresponding to ranks clustered around the 190th position, a distribution that underscores the name’s appeal among parents seeking a designation that balances historical depth with individual distinctiveness. Connoting both the mythic narrative of Persephone—alternatively called Cora—and the refined literary heritage of early Romantic Europe, Corissa thus articulates an identity that is at once historically rooted and subtly inventive.