Lisa

Where the name comes from

• European short form of Elisabeth (ultimately Hebrew)
  No meaning of its own. It inherits that of Elisheba: "God is an oath" (BDB) or "my God is an oath" (DMNES).
  Lisa, from the Lis- of Elisabeth, from Greek Eleisabeth, from Hebrew Elisheba (אֱלִישֶׁבַע)
  The Hebrew-to-Elizabeth chain is fully sourced. Lisa's own status as a short form is only partly sourced: DMNES records medieval Lis-/Lys- short forms of Elizabeth (Lysbeth 1312, Lisebetten 1336, Lys and Liesken 1597–98, Lissbet 1581) but not "Lisa" itself. Wiktionary calls Lisa a diminutive of Elisabeth "in several European languages" and says it was first recorded in Sweden in 1558, but cites no source for either statement. The "oath" meaning is inherited from Elizabeth.

Lisa across traditions

• Jewish (Hebrew Bible). Elisheba, wife of Aaron (Exodus 6:23). BDB glosses the name "God is an oath, by which one swears".
• Christian (New Testament). BDB equates Elisheba with Greek Eleisabeth and compares Luke 1:7, Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist. This is the Christian route of the name into Europe.
• Medieval Low Countries and Scandinavia. Short forms built on Lis-/Lys- are attested in Brabant and Belgium (Lysbeth 1312; Lisebetten 1336; Lys, Lysken, Liesken 1597–98) and in Denmark (Lissbet 1581).
• Italian Renaissance. Lisa Gherardini, born in Florence in 1479, is the leading candidate for the sitter of Leonardo's Mona Lisa. The identification goes back to Vasari and is still debated.
• United States (SSA). 951,544 combined US births, 1950s–2010s. Lisa was the #1 girls' name of the 1960s (496,987). By decade: 1950s #37, 1960s #1, 1970s #6, 1980s #31, 1990s #118; not in the top 200 in the 2000s or 2010s.

Who carried it

• Lisa Gherardini (Lisa del Giocondo) (Born June 15, 1479, Florence): Wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The leading, though debated, candidate for the sitter of the Mona Lisa.
• Lise Meitner (November 7, 1878, Vienna – October 27, 1968, Cambridge): Austrian-born physicist whose research led to the discovery of uranium fission. She bore Lise, the German sister form.

Forms in other languages

Lise

Lisa in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.