Alisha

Alisha is a variant of Alicia, itself a modern Latinate form of Alice. Alice in turn is an anglicized form of the Old French Adelaide which is derived from the Germanic elements “adal” meaning “noble” and “heid” meaning “kind, type”. All such names derived from Adelaide and Alice essentially mean “noble one”. Both the French Adelaide and the English Alice were well established female names in medieval times. Alice in particular enjoyed immense popularity in the 19th century thanks in large part to Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (1865) and “Through the Looking Glass” (1872) based on his real-life young child friend Alice Liddell. Due to the enduring popularity of these classic children’s books, and the quaintly commonsensical and beloved little heroine Alice, the name is almost synonymous with innocently adventurous little girls. Variations of Alice were soon to follow in the late 19th century and Alicia is one such example. Later in the 20th century the Latinate Alicia morphed into a more phonetically modern Alisha.