Jessica is a female

Female

Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...

 given name

Given name

A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...

.

The oldest written record of the name with its current spelling is found as the name of a character in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...

, where it belongs to the daughter of Shylock

Shylock

Shylock is a fictional character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.-In the play:In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is a Jewish moneylender who lends money to his Christian rival, Antonio, setting the security at a pound of Antonio's flesh...

. The name may have been an Anglicisation of the Biblical Iskah

Iscah

Iscah is Hebrew for Jessica. Iscah was daughter of Haran, and sister or half-sister of Lot and Milcah.The name Iscah is mentioned only once throughout the entire Hebrew Bible, found in Genesis 11:29....

  (from the Hebrew: יִסְכָּה : yiskāh), the name of a daughter of Haran

Haran

Haran or Aran is a figure in Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. Haran was born in Ur Kaśdim , the son of Terah and thus a descendant of Shem. Haran's brothers were Abram/Abraham and Nahor...

 briefly mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

. Iskah was rendered "Jeska" in English Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

s available in Shakespeare's day.

The original Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 name Yiskāh (יִסְכָּה), means "foresight", or being able to see the potential in the future. The Hebrew root sakhah (ס.כ.ה) means "to see," so the name Yiskah, with the added yod

Yodh

Yodh is the tenth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Yud , Syriac and Arabic...

, implies foresight or clairvoyance

Clairvoyance

The term clairvoyance is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception...

. Yiskah is the niece of Abraham

Abraham

Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...

.

"Jessica" was the most popular female baby name throughout the 1980s and 1990s in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, with popularity waning starting in 1998 through the early 2000s and falling out of the Top 20 by 2004. It also rose to # 1 in England and Wales

England and Wales

England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...

 in 2005, dropping to # 3 in 2006. Common abbreviations of the name Jessica include "Jess" and "Jessie."

People

• Jessica Abel
  Jessica Abel
  Jessica Abel is an American comic book writer and artist, known as the creator of such works as Life Sucks, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, Soundtrack, La Perdida, Mirror, Window, Radio: An Illustrated Guide , and the omnibus series Artbabe.Abel has stated that her major work is not...
  
   (born 1969), American comic book writer and artist
• Jessica Alba
  Jessica Alba
  Jessica Marie Alba is an American television and film actress. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack . Alba rose to prominence as the lead actress in the television series Dark Angel...
  
   (born 1981), American television and film actress
• Jessica Biel
  Jessica Biel
  Jessica Claire Biel is an American actress, model, and occasional singer. Biel is known for her television role as Mary Camden in the long-running family-drama series 7th Heaven...
  
   (born 1982), American actress and former model
• Jessica Burciaga (born 1983), American model
• Jessica Caban
  Jessica Caban
  Jessica Marie Caban is an American fashion model, dancer and actress. She was a contestant on Model Latina, where she was crowned the first ever Model Latina champion.-Early life:...
  
   (born 1982), American model, dancer and actress
• Jessica Capshaw
  Jessica Capshaw
  Jessica Brooke Capshaw is an American actress. She is known for her role as Jamie Stringer in The Practice and for her role as Dr...
  
   (born 1976), American actress
• Jessica DiCicco (born 1980), American actress
• Jessica Drake
  Jessica Drake
  Jessica Drake is an American pornographic actress.-Early life:Drake spent much of her early life growing up around the state of Texas in different cities including San Antonio and El Paso. While majoring in psychology at a college in El Paso, Drake took a job as a house dancer at a local strip club...
  
   (born 1974), American pornographic actress
• Jessica Dubroff
  Jessica Dubroff
  Jessica Whitney Dubroff was a seven-year-old pilot trainee who died attempting to become the youngest person to fly an airplane across the United States...
  
   (1988–1996), American pilot trainee
• Jessica Fodera
  Jessicka
  Jessicka Addams is an American singer and artist. Best known by her stage name Jessicka, she was the front woman of Florida based band Jack Off Jill and current front for the Los Angeles based band Scarling.-Early life:Jessicka grew up in the town of Sunrise, Florida...
  
   (Jessicka, born 1975), American musician and artist, singer of Scarling.
  Scarling.
  Scarling. is an American alternative rock band from Los Angeles, whose core members are Jessicka and Christian Hejnal-Addams. The band formed in 2002. They have released two albums, Sweet Heart Dealer and So Long, Scarecrow.-Name:...
  
   and Formerly of Jack Off Jill
  Jack Off Jill
  Jack Off Jill was an American alternative rock band from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, founded in 1992 by Jessica Fodera, Tenni Arslanyan, Robin Moulder, and Michelle Oliver. Though these four young women were the initial founders, twelve members rotated through the group in its lifespan, including...
  
  
• Jessica Gomes
  Jessica Gomes
  Jessica Gomes is an Australian model of Singaporean-Chinese and Portuguese heritage who appeared in the 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 editions of the Swimsuit Issue of the United States–published magazine Sports Illustrated. She was featured in a bodypainting layout as a canvas for bodypaint artist...
  
   (born 1985), Australian model
• Jessica Harp
  Jessica Harp
  Jessica Leigh Harp is an American songwriter and former country artist from Kansas City, Missouri. Between 2005 and 2007, Harp and Michelle Branch recorded and performed as The Wreckers, a duo that topped the country charts in 2006 with the Grammy-nominated "Leave the Pieces." After The Wreckers...
  
   (born 1982), American country singer-songwriter and guitarist
• Jessica Honor Carleton (born 1983), American entertainer and one of the stars in Green Screen Adventures
  Green Screen Adventures
  Green Screen Adventures is a children's television series which premiered in 2007. The series was originally produced for local broadcast on WCIU-TV in Chicago, which is the flagship station of Weigel Broadcasting, and is designed to fit the FCC's educational and information programming...
  
  
• Jessica Hynes (born 1972), British actress, writer and comedienne
• Jessica Jaymes
  Jessica Jaymes
  Jessica Jaymes is an American pornographic actress.-Early life:Jaymes was born in Anchorage, Alaska to a Czechoslovakian and French mother and a Seminole father-who at an early age of ten relocated to Arizona. Her father was an under cover DEA agent and patrolmen...
  
   (born 1979), Drake's American compatriot and pornographic actress
• Jessica Jung (born 1989), US-born Korean pop singer, member of Girls' Generation
  Girls' Generation
  Girls' Generation is a nine-member South Korean electropop girl group formed by S.M. Entertainment in 2007. The nine members are: Taeyeon , Jessica, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona and Seohyun...
  
  
• Jessica Lange
  Jessica Lange
  Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...
  
   (born 1949), American actress
• Jessica Lee Rose
  Jessica Lee Rose
  Jessica Lee Rose is an American-New Zealand actress who first gained popularity after playing the role of lonelygirl15....
  
   (born 1987), American actress
• Jessica Lowndes
  Jessica Lowndes
  Jessica Lowndes is a Canadian actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Adrianna Tate-Duncan on TV series 90210.-Personal life:Jessica Suzanne Lowndes was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada...
  
   (born 1988), Canadian actress and singer-songwriter
• Jessica Martin (actor and comedian) (born 1962), British actor and comedian
• Jessica Mauboy
  Jessica Mauboy
  Jessica Hilda Mauboy , is an Indigenous Australian R&B singer-songwriter and actress. In 2006, Mauboy was the runner-up on the fourth season of Australian Idol, she had auditioned for the talent show in Alice Springs to pursue a recording career...
  
   (born 1989), Australian singer
• Jessica McClure
  Jessica McClure
  Jessica McClure Morales became famous at the age of 18 months after falling into a well in the backyard of 3309 Tanner Dr. Midland, Texas, on October 14, 1987. Between that day and October 16, rescuers worked for 58 hours to free "Baby Jessica" from the eight-inch-wide well casing below the ground...
  
   (born 1986), known as "Baby Jessica" when rescued from a well as a toddler
• Jessica Mitford
  Jessica Mitford
  Jessica Lucy Freeman-Mitford was an English author, journalist and political campaigner, who was one of the Mitford sisters...
  
   (1917–1996), Anglo-American writer
• Jessica Moore (basketball)
  Jessica Moore (basketball)
  Jessica Moore is an American professional basketball player in the WNBA, most recently playing for the Connecticut Sun. Jessica was a Center for the UConn Huskies from 2000–2005.-High school:...
  
   (born 1982), American basketball player in WNBA for the Indiana Fever
• Jessica Moore (tennis)
  Jessica Moore (tennis)
  Jessica Moore is an Australian professional tennis player. Formerly coached by Milo Bradley, Moore works with the Australian Institute of Sport. Her preferred surface is grass.-Career:...
  
   (born 1990), Australian tennis player
• Jessica Origliasso
  Jessica Origliasso
  Jessica Louise Origliasso is an Australian singer-songwriter, actress and fashion designer. Born and raised in Albany Creek, Queensland she, along side twin sister Lisa Origliasso, performed in show business at a young age. Origliasso rose to fame in 2000's when she and her sister formed a pop duo...
  
   (born 1984), Australian musician, member of The Veronicas
  The Veronicas
  The Veronicas are an Australian electrorock, pop-punk and rock band. Twin sisters Jessica and Lisa Origliasso formed the band in 1999 in Brisbane. They have their own line of clothing which was released in 2007....
  
  
• Jessica Paré
  Jessica Paré
  Jessica Paré is a Canadian film and television actress. She has appeared in the films Stardom , Lost and Delirious , Wicker Park , Hot Tub Time Machine , and co-starred in the vampire horror-comedy Suck...
  
   (born 1982), Canadian actress
• Jessica Savitch
  Jessica Savitch
  Jessica Beth Savitch was an American television broadcaster and news reporter, host of PBS' Frontline and New York weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News during the short-lived Roger Mudd/Tom Brokaw era....
  
   (1947–1983), American TV News Reporter
• Jessica Serfaty
  America's Next Top Model, Cycle 14
  America's Next Top Model, Cycle 14 is the fourteenth cycle of America's Next Top Model and the eighth season to be aired on The CW network. The original premiere date was March 3, 2010, but had been postponed to March 10. This cycle's catch phrase is "Work It Out"...
  
   (born 1990), American model
• Jessica Simpson
  Jessica Simpson
  Jessica Ann Simpson is an American recording artist, actress, television personality, and fashion designer whose rise to fame began in 1999. Since that time, Simpson has achieved many recording milestones, starred in several television shows, movies, and commercials, launched a line of hair and...
  
   (born 1980), American pop singer and actress
• Jessica Stam
  Jessica Stam
  Jessica Stam is a Canadian model. She is considered to be part of the crop of models described as "doll faces" alongside Gemma Ward, Sasha Pivovarova, Vlada Roslyakova, Lily Cole, Caroline Trentini, Devon Aoki, and Heather Marks...
  
   (born 1986), Canadian model
• Jessica Steinhauser (known as Asia Carrera
  Asia Carrera
  Asia Carrera is a former American pornographic actress.- Early life and education :Asia Carrera was born in New York City to a Japanese father and German mother, the eldest of four siblings. She was raised in Little Silver, New Jersey, attending the Little Silver School District and Red Bank...
  
  , born 1973), Lynn's American compatriot and former pornographic actress
• Jessica Stroup
  Jessica Stroup
  Jessica Leigh Stroup is an American actress and fashion model. Stroup is best known for her role as Erin Silver on The CW television series 90210, a spin-off to the original Beverly Hills, 90210...
  
   (born 1986), American actress and model
• Jessica Sutta
  Jessica Sutta
  Jessica Lynn Sutta is an American dancer, showgirl, singer, recording artist, model, and actress. She is best known as a member of the American pop girl group and dance ensemble, the Pussycat Dolls. She left the group in January 2010 to embark her solo career. She is currently finishing up her...
  
   (born 1982), American dancer and singer, member of Pussycat Dolls
  Pussycat Dolls
  The Pussycat Dolls are an American pop girl group and dance ensemble based in Los Angeles; currently consisting of Lauren Bennett, Vanessa Curry, Kristal "Lyndriette" Smith, Tiffany "Taz" Zavala, Kia Hampton and Paula Van Oppen. The Pussycat Dolls were founded by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995...
  
  
• Jessica Szohr
  Jessica Szohr
  Jessica Karen Szohr is an American actress. Szohr began her screen career starring on television shows such as CSI: Miami and What About Brian...
  
   (born 1985), American actress
• Jessica Tandy
  Jessica Tandy
  Jessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy was an English-American stage and film actress.She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. She also worked in British films...
  
   (1909–1994), British-American actress
• Jessica Taylor
  Jessica Taylor (Liberty X)
  Jessica Taylor is an English singer, previously with the Brit Award winning pop group, Liberty X. The group consisted of herself, Tony Lundon, Kevin Simm, Michelle Heaton, and Kelli Young.-Personal life:...
  
   (born 1980), English singer, former member of Liberty X
  Liberty X
  Liberty X were a British pop vocal group formed by the five contestants eliminated from the final ten qualifiers from the 2001 ITV show Popstars. The group consisted of Tony Lundon, Kevin Simm, Michelle Heaton, Kelli Young and Jessica Taylor...
  
  
• Jessica Walter
  Jessica Walter
  Jessica Walter is an American actress, known for the films Play Misty for Me, Grand Prix, and for her role as Lucille Bluth on the sitcom Arrested Development...
  
   (born 1941), USA Actress

Name variations and nicknames

Jes, Jess, Jessi, ssica, Jessa, Jessie, Jessy, Jeska, Jessika, Jessicka, Jessyka, Yessika, Yesika, Jazz, Jase. Also in many Asian countries Jessica is spelled Jassica.

• Catalan: Jèssica
• Chinese: 哲斯卡 （je1 si1 ka3）
• Frisian: Jesca
• Hebrew: Yiskah (יִסְכָּה)
• Hungarian: Dzseszika
• Italian: Gessica
• Japanese: Jeshika (Hiragana: じぇしか, Katakana: ジェシカ)
• Lithuania: Džesika
• Polish: Dżesika, Jesica
• Russian: Джессика
• Spanish: Yésica, Jésica

Usage in Scotland

The Scottish variant of Jessie is Seasaidh/Teasaidh, (respectively pronounced "SHAY-cee" and "CHEH-cee"). It is important to note, however, that in Scotland the name Jessie is not related to Jessica. Instead, it is considered a pet form of the name Jean (from John), expressed in Gaelic variant as the names Seana (Shawna) or Sìne (Sheena). Related feminine names taken from John are Jane/Joan (Sìne), Janie (Sìneag), and Janet/Janice (Seònaid); all are considered equated.

An additional nickname for Jessie, heard in Scotland, is Jinty. This may or may not be the case in Ireland or Northern Ireland.

Fictional characters

• Jessica Fletcher
  Jessica Fletcher
  Jessica Fletcher is a fictional character portrayed by veteran Tony-winning actress Angela Lansbury on the American television series Murder, She Wrote...
  
   in the American television mystery series Murder, She Wrote
  Murder, She Wrote
  Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
  
  
• Jessica Buchanan
  Jessica Buchanan
  Jessica Eugenia Buchanan is a fictional character on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live...
  
   in the American soap opera One Life to Live
  One Life to Live
  One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
  
  
• Jessi in the American drama television series Kyle XY
  Kyle XY
  Kyle XY is an American television series with a science fiction premise and mystery-drama style. The central character is a teenage boy who awakens naked in a forest outside Seattle, Washington, with no more knowledge or abilities than a newborn. He is taken in by a family and given the name Kyle...
  
  
• Jessica Rabbit
  Jessica Rabbit
  Jessica Rabbit is a fictional character from the Roger Rabbit film-and-novel franchise.Jessica Rabbit may also refer to:* Jessica Rabbit vibrator, a sex toy* Melyssa Ford , Canadian model-See also:...
  
   in the Roger Rabbit
  Who Framed Roger Rabbit
  Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
  
   film-and-novel franchise.
• Lady Jessica in the Sci-fi novels, mini-series and movies of Dune (franchise)
  Dune (franchise)
  Dune is a science fiction franchise which originated with the 1965 novel Dune by Frank Herbert. Considered by many to be the greatest science fiction novel of all time, Dune is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history...
  
  
• Jessica Wakefield
  Jessica Wakefield
  Jessica Wakefield is one of the main characters in the Sweet Valley High book series. She was played by Brittany Daniel in the TV series of the same name.- Character :...
  
   of the Sweet Valley (literary franchise)