Latin Meaning: The name Clarissa is a Latin baby name. In Latin the meaning of the name Clarissa is: The Latinized form of the English Clarice, meaning famous. Famous bearer: Samuel Richardson's 18th century novel 'Clarissa Harlowe'.
The Spanish explorer, Francisco Pizarro, discovered winter squashes in Peru and brought seeds back to an unenthusiastic citizenry in his country. Archeologists uncovered stems, skins, and seeds of summer squashes in the caves of the Tamaulipas Mountains of Mexico dating back between 7,000 and 5,000 BCE.
Squash comes from the Narragansett Native American word askutasquash, which means eaten raw or uncooked.. Squashes are one of the oldest known crops--10,000 years by some estimates of sites in Mexico. Since squashes are gourds, they most likely served as containers or utensils because of their hard shells.