Misa
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Rōmaji transcription of みさ
Used for both men and women, depending on the country· national registers that list names by sex disagree
- United States (Census Bureau, 2020): listed as female
- Finland (DVV): listed under both sexes
- Brazil (Brasil.IO genero-nomes (IBGE Censo 2010 mirror, CC-BY-SA)): listed as female
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 24 countries · latest register: SSA, 2025
/ˈmizə/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Misa is a given name used for both men and women, depending on the country, written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Japan than in any other country.
- JPJapan≈1 in 2.1K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 290K
- SISlovenia1 in 5.6K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Japan (inferred from the name graph)
- Record sources
- 196 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 2.1K (inferred from the name graph)
≈59,000 people, est.
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Japan, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)Rōmaji transcription of みさ
Cited for this meaning 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 20 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Misa counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JP Japan | #416 | ≈59,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.1K | — | Misa | 100 |
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈1,800 est. | ≈1 in 121K | — | Misa | 19 |
| US United States | — | 1,147 | 1 in 290K | 1.1K | Misa | 196 |
| SI Slovenia | — | 376 | 1 in 5.6K | 362 | — | 6 |
| TW Taiwan | — | ≈310 est. | ≈1 in 75K | — | Misa | 15 |
| IL Israel | — | ≈230 est. | ≈1 in 38K | — | Misa | 6 |
| FI Finland | — | 218 | 1 in 26K | 166 | Misa | 7 |
| AT Austria | — | ≈200 est. | ≈1 in 45K | 12 | Misa | 15 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; SURS — resident population given names; stat.si Imena rojstva — full name register (per-token frequency + rank); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Misa is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In kea, mass (religion: celebration of the Eucharist)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In French, third-person singular past historic of miser
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Swahili, mass (celebration of the Eucharist)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Esperanto, failed, wrong, amiss, faulty
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In dlm, feminine singular of mis
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Misa Watanabeb. 1964JPJapanese voice actress
- Misa Shimizub. 1970JPJapanese actress
- Misa Sakurabayashib. 1970JPJapanese journalist and announcer
- Misa Edob. 1970JPJapanese businessperson
- Misa Tachibanab. 1972JPJapanese AV idol
- Misa Aikab. 1976JPJapanese idol
- Misa Kurokib. 1984JPJapanese tarento
- Misa Mochizukib. 1985JPJapanese actress
- Misa Etōb. 1993JPJapanese gravure model, fashion model
- Misa NakashimaJPJapanese announcer
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence
(measured from records)49 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 24 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.1K | #11,283 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 166 | #2,128 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 151 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 93 | #11,283 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 86 | #3,264 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 67 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 14 | — |
| AT Austria | Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024) | 2023 | 12 | #1,753 |
| AT Austria | Statistik Austria — Vornamen der Geborenen (1984–present) | 2023 | 1 | #2,871 |
Reference works 5
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Misa mean, and where does it come from?
- Rōmaji transcription of みさ Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Misa?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈmizə/ (IPA) for Japanese.
- Is Misa a male or female name?
- Misa is used for both men and women, depending on the country. National registers that list names by sex disagree: United States (Census Bureau, 2020): listed as female; Finland (DVV): listed under both sexes; Brazil (Brasil.IO genero-nomes (IBGE Censo 2010 mirror, CC-BY-SA)): listed as female. We don't publish a percentage split.
- In which country does Misa have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 59 thousand people named Misa in Japan, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled misa.
- How common is the name Misa?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,147 people named Misa in 2020, about 1 in 290 thousand residents.
- How common is Misa compared with other names?
- In Japan, Misa is the 416th most common given name of 366,905 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Misa?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/misaThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Misa” — the 416th most common given name in Japan. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.