At first glance, she’s little more than a riff on Vanessa.  But this name has a story all her own.

Thanks to Rachel for suggesting Nyssa as Name of the Day.

Nyssa has never appeared in the US Top 1000.  Nysa, Nissa and Nisa are also no shows.  But if you look, there are plenty of reasons to consider her a viable choice for a daughter’s name.

Let’s start with the ancient place name, and its most famous resident.  The future Saint Gregory was bishop of Nyssa back in the 300s.  (Today it is in Turkey.)  Gregory is remembered for a few things, but most notably for fleshing out the doctrine of the Trinity.  He won sainthood for his thinking, and so Nyssa is not only an ancient place name, but  a vaguely spiritual one, too.

Nyssa also fits with choices like Aven and Linden.  She’s from the natural world, but few would recognize her as a botanical appellation.  Nyssa is the scientific name for the Tupelo tree.  Tupelo is familiar, thanks to Elvis Presley (he was born in Tupelo, Mississippi), the honey (yes, it comes from the trees) and the Van Morrison song.  But Tupelo would make for an outlandish baby name.

Plenty of other possible meanings are attached, including:

• Goal;
• Beginning – or possibly end;
• Sign, based on the Hebrew Nissa;
• Elf or fairy, usually cited as Norse;
• Woman.

In Greek myth, Nysa is the place the nymphs raised the god Dionysus, or possibly the name of the nymph who nursed him.

Then there’s this Namipedia entry:  My parents reverse-engineered the meaning “miracle” for Nyssa, from the Hebrew word “nes.”  It’s a stretch, but it isn’t unreasonable.

Possible meanings aside, Nyssa’s strongest association is science fiction.

First up is Doctor Who, the BBC sci fi adventure introduced in the 1960s and still on television today.  Introduced in the early 1980s, Nyssa of Traken was one of the time-traveling Doctor’s fellow adventurers.  If you’re not into the cult series, the gist is this: the Doctor is a re-generating alien (explaining the eleven different actors who have filled the role), and a scientist/engineer who shows up at critical points in history to prevent tragedy.  (Or, occasionally, to ensure that a necesary tragedy takes place.)  Plot lines have put the Doctor at many a historical moment, meeting everyone from Queen Victoria to Janis Joplin.  Name your daughter Nyssa, and you’ll hear at least a few references to the Doctor.

Two similar uses of Nyssa come a bit later:

• In Blade II, Nyssa Damaskinos is a bad vampire.  She and (good, half-vampire) Blade reluctantly end up working together;
• Nyssa Raatko appears in the Batman comics.  She’s a bad guy, too, but not an all out villain.

If you’re seeking a novel, unusual name that is more than just a pleasing sound but without tons of baggage, Nyssa is a good bet.  She could serve as an alternative to the fading Alyssa – in fact, Anissa has appeared in the US Top 1000 in recent years.  Overall, Nyssa’s ties to the natural world make her current, but she’s more quietly feminine than Clover or Lake.