Head to head · Girls' names
Jessica vs Paislee
#665 vs #666 in 2025 · both stepping back from its peak
Jessica is a whisker ahead (#665 vs #666 in 2025) and both are stepping back from its peak. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Jessica leads 5 measures of 6; Paislee leads 0.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Jessica #738, Paislee — — Jessica higher
- 1890s: Jessica #869, Paislee — — Jessica higher
- 1900s: Jessica #960, Paislee — — Jessica higher
- 1910s: Jessica #949, Paislee — — Jessica higher
- 1920s: Jessica #1214, Paislee — — Jessica higher
- 1930s: Jessica #1015, Paislee — — Jessica higher
- 1940s: Jessica #601, Paislee — — Jessica higher
- 1950s: Jessica #413, Paislee — — Jessica higher
- 1960s: Jessica #253, Paislee — — Jessica higher
- 1970s: Jessica #29, Paislee — — Jessica higher
- 1980s: Jessica #2, Paislee — — Jessica higher
- 1990s: Jessica #3, Paislee #13145 — Jessica higher
- 2000s: Jessica #31, Paislee #5965 — Jessica higher
- 2010s: Jessica #202, Paislee #566 — Jessica higher
- 2020s: Jessica #529, Paislee #527 — Paislee higher
Jessica stood higher in 14 of 15 decades; Paislee took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Jessica | Paislee |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #738 | — |
| 1890s | #869 | — |
| 1900s | #960 | — |
| 1910s | #949 | — |
| 1920s | #1214 | — |
| 1930s | #1015 | — |
| 1940s | #601 | — |
| 1950s | #413 | — |
| 1960s | #253 | — |
| 1970s | #29 | — |
| 1980s | #2 | — |
| 1990s | #3 | #13145 |
| 2000s | #31 | #5965 |
| 2010s | #202 | #566 |
| 2020s | #529 | #527 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Jessica
- Scotland#49
- England & Wales#95
Paislee
Not charting outside the US.
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Jessica
God beholds
The name is generally traced to a Hebrew original meaning that God sees or looks out, though the chain runs through a sixteenth-century English rendering of the Hebrew and is not secure at every link.
Iscah → Jessica
How it traveled
Something else is unusual about it. A name that reaches this size in America almost always spawns a family of respellings — Britney and Brittny, Kaitlyn and Katelyn, Mikayla and Michaela — and this one barely did.
Paislee
From Paisley, a town in Renfrewshire, Scotland
Scholars of Scottish place names divide over the town's own origin. One reading traces it to Latin basilica, 'church', reaching Scots through Middle Irish baslec — the town grew around a medieval abbey. Another looks to a Brittonic word for pasture. The name reached children by way of the place and the surname, not by way of a word for a person.
Paisley (Scottish place name) → Paisley (surname) → Paisley (given name) → Paislee
How it traveled
Paisley began as a place, grew into a Scottish surname carried out to Ulster and North America, and only lately became a first name for girls in the United States. Its worldwide fame came from cloth: the Paisley mills of Renfrewshire mass-produced shawls in the nineteenth century bearing the curved boteh motif of Kashmir and Persia, and the pattern took the town's name permanently.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Jessica
JESS-ik-uh
Three syllables with the weight at the front. Said essentially the same way across the English-speaking world; Italian and Spanish soften the opening consonant.
- Jess — The standard short form, used for women and men both and often the only name people use.
- Jessie — The affectionate form; a standing name of its own and older than Jessica's American run.
- Sica — Cut from the back; used in Italian- and Spanish-speaking families.
Paislee
PAYZ-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a z sound in the middle. The respelled ending changes nothing about how it is said — it sounds the same as Paisley.
- Pais — The most natural clipping, informal and household-level; rarely written down.
- Paise — Same clip with a softer spelling; used in speech more than on paper.
- Lee — Taken from the ending; stands alone as a given name in its own right for both men and women.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Jessica if you want…
- a name with more sound in itJessica runs 3 syllables, Paislee 2
- a name that charts abroad tooJessica is on the national lists of Scotland and England & Wales
- a long American recordJessica was already in use when US records began in 1880
- a name that feels very nowJessica is stepping back from its peak
Choose Paislee if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsPaislee is stepping back from its peak
- a name with fewer syllablesPaislee is 2 syllables to Jessica's 3
- a newer arrivalPaislee entered the US charts in 1990
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 40% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 85% for Jessica
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Jessica
Strengths
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing, which is not true of most names its size.
- Jess and Jessie are established short forms with different registers.
- It works in Britain, Ireland, Australia and North America without any adjustment.
To consider
- It is one of the most generation-marked names in the language and will place a person in time immediately.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of boys, though it reads overwhelmingly as a girl's name.
- Its meaning is a reconstruction rather than a documented reading, and honest sources hedge it.
Paislee
Strengths
- Sound-transparent: almost anyone who sees it says it right on the first try, which is not true of every modern respelling.
- The -lee ending is already familiar to American ears through Bailee, Kaylee and Hadlee, so the shape needs no explaining.
- Anchored in something real and traceable — a Scottish town, an abbey, and the woven pattern that still carries the name worldwide.
To consider
- This is the less common of the two spellings, so expect a lifetime of gentle corrections to Paisley — on registers, coffee cups and forms. Spelling it aloud becomes a habit early.
- Respelled -lee endings are strongly tied to a recent stretch of American naming, and the chart shows it stepping back from its high point. The name will read as belonging to a particular era.
- The paisley pattern is a well-known fabric print, so some people will hear the cloth before they hear the name. That association is decorative rather than unkind, and it fades quickly with a person attached to it.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Jessica
85%chance Jessica feels dated by 2040
Jessica is coming down from a big peak (#1 in 1985). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
Paislee
40%chance Paislee feels dated by 2040
Paislee sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Jessica and Paislee in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Every #1 name in American history
- Names of the '80s and '90s, currently resting
- British invasion: UK favorites still rare in the US
- Scottish gems the US hasn't discovered
- all guides
Where Jessica and Paislee each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Jessica or Paislee — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Jessica or Paislee?
- Jessica, in 2025: Jessica ranked #665 with 424 babies; Paislee ranked #666 with 423 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Jessica or Paislee?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Jessica moved down 266 places; Paislee moved down 287 places.
- Which is the older name, Jessica or Paislee?
- Jessica was already in use when US records began in 1880; Paislee entered the US charts in 1990. On the American record, Jessica is the older name.
- How many people are named Jessica and Paislee?
- About 1,021,000 people named Jessica are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 11,000 people named Paislee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Jessicas or Paislees in the classroom?
- Jessica will almost certainly be the only one in school. Paislee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
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