Jessika
Feminine
Shakespeare invented several names that are now ordinary, and got one of them by accident. Imogen appears to be a printer's misreading of Innogen — the compositor took two n's for an m, and the mistake has been a woman's name for four hundred years. Jessica was invented on purpose.
How old is the name Jessika?
Jessika first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Jessika alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 5,900 people named Jessika are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jessika most popular?
Jessika peaked in 1990, reaching #599 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 11,333 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Where it comes from
From Iscah to Jessika
The story of Jessika
The list of names Shakespeare put into circulation is longer than most people expect: Jessica, Miranda, Perdita, Olivia in its modern form, Cordelia from an older spelling, and Imogen by mistake. Some he built from Latin, some from the Bible, and Imogen he got from a compositor who could not read the manuscript. Jessica sat almost unused for three centuries and then became one of the most given names in the English-speaking world in about two decades. The k spelling is not an invention: German, Swedish, Danish and Polish all use k where English uses c, so Jessika is simply how a large part of Europe writes the same name.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Jessica first appears in The Merchant of Venice in the 1590s and was almost certainly built from Iscah, a name mentioned once in Genesis and printed as Jesca in English Bibles of the period. Iscah's own meaning is not established. The k spelling is the standard German and Scandinavian one.
How the name formed
- Iscah
- Jessica
- Jessika
Related forms: Jessika · Jessika · Jesyka
Pronouncing Jessika
JESS-ih-kuh
Three syllables, stress on the first. Jessica and Jessika are said identically in English; German gives the final a a fuller vowel and the k a harder edge.
Nicknames for Jessika
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
- 1968
- Most girls named
- 1990378 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #599reached in 1990
- Change vs 2024
- +40.0%7 in 2025, from 5
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.
Jessika in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jessika in German — same name
- Jessika in Swedish — same name
- Jesyka in Polish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Jessikas among us
people named Jessika are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Jessika
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jessika
- #11932
- Jessika on the 2025 chart
- #566
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jessika went to 7 girls in 2025, but Jessica is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 431, which makes it the 566th most-given girls’ name of the year — 11,366 places above the chart.
- Jessica424
- Jessika7
About 1 girl in 3,729 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Jessika itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Cinda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jessika's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cinda climbed just as high around 1953, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cinda's path sketches the road Jessika is walking now.
Jessika 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 scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Jessika beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jessika in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling is standard in German and Scandinavian use rather than invented here.
- Three short forms, one of which serves either child.
- A precisely datable origin in a specific play.
- Jessica is overwhelmingly the standard English spelling and this will be corrected constantly.
- It was one of the most given names in the country for two decades, which places the bearer in time.
- The name has a documented inventor and an undocumented root, so there is no meaning to give.
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What they receive
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Jessika
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jessikas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,900 people named Jessika are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jessika?
- Jessika is one of 2 recorded spellings. Jessica is the more common one — 424 births in 2025 against 7 for Jessika.
- How popular is the name Jessika in 2025?
- Jessika ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jessika?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Jessika — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jessika with classmates?
- Jessika will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jessika
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jessika? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jessika and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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