No one named Jessica appears in the Bible. The name is first recorded in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, written in the late 1590s, where Jessica is Shylock’s daughter. Shakespeare probably formed it from Iscah, a niece of Abraham who is named once, in Genesis 11:29. Her name is usually explained as “to behold” or “to watch.” Where does the name Jessica come from? There is no record of Jessica as a name before Shakespeare. In the play Jessica leaves…

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