Jessica
Feminine · “God beholds”
Jessica is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,050,729 girls against 3,578 boys since 1880. See Jessica as a boy name
Jessica is one of the very few American peaks that Britain shared. Most names that reach the top of the American lists stay there and nowhere else; this one climbed to the same height in England, Wales and Scotland at almost the same time, which is rare enough to be worth saying.
How old is the name Jessica?
Jessica was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Jessica alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 1,021,000 people named Jessica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jessica most popular?
Jessica peaked in 1985, reaching #1 nationally. Today it ranks #665, 664 places below that high. See the whole 1985 chart.
Where it comes from
From Iscah to Jessica
The story of Jessica
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. Jesica, Jessika and Jesika all exist in the record and none of them ever amounted to anything; the standard spelling absorbed nearly the whole of the name's enormous run. The likeliest reason is that it comes from a printed source rather than a spoken one, so parents met it on a page with its spelling already fixed, and there was nothing for the ear to reinterpret.
Meaningscholars disagree
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.
How the name formed
- Iscah
- Jessica
Related forms: Gessica · Yessica · Yiskah
Pronouncing 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.
Nicknames for Jessica
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 198755,992 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1reached in 1985
- Change vs 2022
- −31.6%424 in 2025, from 620
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Jessica in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gessica in Italian — spelling variant
- Yessica in Spanish — spelling variant
- Yiskah in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from National Records of Scotland, Office for National Statistics. Sources
Jessicas among us
people named Jessica are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,791 born in 2025 was named Jessica
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Jennifer test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jessica's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jennifer climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jennifer's path sketches the road Jessica is walking now.
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.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Jessica is headed
Jessica is easing off slowly — about 19% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Jessica beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jessica in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- 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.
- The spelling is stable, so a Jessica rarely has to correct anyone.
- 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.
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What they receive
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Jessica
Feminine · #665 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jessicas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,021,000 people named Jessica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jessica in 2025?
- Jessica ranks #665 among US girl names in 2025, with 424 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jessica?
- About 1 in every 3,791 US girls born in 2025 was named Jessica — 424 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jessica with classmates?
- Jessica will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jessica
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Isabela#664 · Paislee#666 · Marisol#666 · Jolene#666 · Oakleigh#666 · Myra#662 · Legacy#662 · Briana#661
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jessica? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jessica and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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