The best thing about the name Alissa: It is very beautiful, my dad picked it out and loved it. My mom wanted to name me Ambria.
The worst thing about the name: Not the most common spelling! I know of one other Alissa who spells her name like mine. So people will spell it Alyssa if they don't know better, or I also get two L's a lot as well.
If my name wasn`t Alissa....: It would be Ambria, which I am not particularly fond of.
Extra information: The majority (about 90%) of Alissa's I know have middle names that begin with N, like Noelle (two girls), and Nicole (three). That seems to be the most pleasant sounding when combined. Although believe me, when in trouble I do get called Alissa Noelle quite a lot.
Alissa appears in 2007`s top-1000 name list at rank 332.. 1997 was a `top year` for the name Alissa. (Based on 128 years of name history) In that year it ranked #243. The last time Alissa appeared among the most common names was in 1970. Our records go back to 1880