Melissa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Melissa (disambiguation).
Melissa is a given name for a female. It has a Greek origin, meaning honey-bee, the feminine version of Melisseus, a legendary "king of Crete".
In 2004 "Melissa" was the 100th most common name given to girls born in the United States [1]. Melissa was also one of the top ten baby names for girls in the United States from 1967 to 1989.
[edit] In Greek mythology
In Greek mythology, Melissa was a mountain nymph that saved Zeus from his father, Cronus, while he was trying to devour him. She hid him in the hills and fed him milk from the goat Amalthea and plundered beehives for honey. When Cronus discoved this, he turned her into a worm, but Zeus felt sorry for her and changed her into a queen bee instead, to be forever connected with honey.
