Name Melissa - meaning, origin, numerology

Melissa is a given name for a female child. The name comes from the Greek word μέλισσα (melissa), "honey bee", which in turn comes from μέλι (meli), "honey". In Ireland it is sometimes used as a feminine form of the Gaelic male name Maoilíosa, which means "servant of Jesus". Melissa also refers to the plant Melissa officinalis (Lamiaceae family), known as lemon balm.

In Hittite melit signifies "honey". According to Greek mythology, perhaps reflecting Minoan culture, making her the daughter of a Cretan king Melissos, whose -issos ending is pre-Greek, Melissa was a nymph who discovered and taught the use of honey and from whom bees were believed to have received their name. She was one of the nymph nurses of Zeus, sister to Amaltheia, but rather than feeding the baby milk, Melissa, appropriately for her name, fed him honey. Or, alternatively, the bees brought honey straight to his mouth. Because of her, Melissa became the name of all the nymphs who cared for the patriarch god as a baby.

1 English: from the Greek word melissa bee. It is the name of the good witch who releases Rogero from the power of the bad witch Alcina in Ariosto's narrative poem Orlando Furioso (1532). The name has recently increased considerably in popularity, together with other female names sharing the same first syllable.
2 Irish: recently adopted as an Anglicized form of the Gaelic female name Maoilíosa.
Variant (of 1): Melitta (from an ancient Greek dialectal variant of the same word).

The section "History and Origin" of this page contains content from the copyrighted Wikipedia article "Melissa"; that content is used under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.