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Japanese 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 her father’s house, elopes with Lorenzo, a Christian, and becomes a Christian herself. In the First Folio of his plays it is spelled Iessica, because printers of the time did not yet separate the letters I and J.
Name references such as Behind the Name trace it to Iscah. The English Bibles of Shakespeare’s day spelled her name in several ways: the Wycliffe Bible had Jescha, the Tyndale and Coverdale Bibles had Iisca, and the Matthew Bible of 1537 had Iesca. Any of these is close to Jessica. Two other sources have been suggested: a feminine form of Jesse, the father of King David, and the falconry word “jess,” a thin leather strap tied to a hawk’s leg. Which of these Shakespeare had in mind is not known.
The name was little used until the middle of the 20th century. In the United States it entered the top 100 names for girls in 1970, was the most popular name for girls from 1985 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1995, and was second in 1991 and 1992, when Ashley took first place. It has declined since, and ranked 665th in 2025. Spanish forms include Jésica and Yésica, and the Portuguese form is Jéssica.
A blessing card for Jessica
Jessica
means observant
English, probably formed from Iscah
Not in the Bible
And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah.
Genesis 11:29 Berean Standard Bible
Jessica, may the LORD bless you and keep you. Numbers 6:24
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Who was Iscah in the Bible?
Iscah appears in a single verse, in the family of Abraham’s father Terah: “And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah” (Genesis 11:29). Haran was Abraham’s brother, and Genesis 11:27 says he was also the father of Lot, so Iscah was Lot’s sister and Abraham’s niece. The Bible says nothing more about her.
Because the verse names Iscah without explanation, Jewish tradition asked who she was. In the Babylonian Talmud, Rabbi Yitzhak identifies her with Sarah: “Iscah is in fact Sarah. And why was she called Iscah? For she saw [sakhta] by means of divine inspiration.” The Talmud offers a second reason as well: “for all gazed [sokhin] upon her beauty” (Megillah 14a). Both explanations play on an Aramaic verb meaning “to see.” Modern scholars regard the true origin of the name Iscah as uncertain.
What does Jessica mean in Hebrew?
Jessica is an English name and has no Hebrew form of its own. Any Hebrew meaning comes through Iscah, in Hebrew Yiskah. Strong’s lexicon derives it from a root meaning “to watch” and glosses it “observant,” and Behind the Name gives its meaning as “to behold.”
Two other meanings circulate. One is “God beholds,” but the Hebrew name contains no word for God. The other is “wealthy,” which has no basis in the Hebrew root.
Is there a Saint Jessica?
No saint named Jessica appears in Nominis, the saints and names directory of the Catholic Church in France. It lists Jessica as a form of Jesse and gives it the name day of Saint Jesse, the father of King David, on 2 December.
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