Jessica (given name)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Gender | Female |
| Meaning | foresighted |
| Origin | English derived from Hebrew |
| Wikipedia articles | All pages beginning with Jessica |
Jessica is a female given name, originally found as the name of a character in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice, where it belongs to the daughter of Shylock. One theory of how Shakespeare created the name is that he altered Jesca, the form of the name of a daughter of Haran briefly mentioned in the book of Genesis. Though Jesca was the form of the name used in English language Bibles available to Shakespeare, the King James Version of the Bible and subsequent translations refer to this person as Iscah. [1] Jesca or Iscah is derived from the Hebrew Yiskah (יִסְכָּה), meaning "foresight" (being able to see the potential in the future).
The Hebrew root sakhah (ס.כ.ה) means "to see", so the name Yiskah, with the added yud, implies foresight or clairvoyance. There is midrash by Rashi suggesting that Yiskah is also a name for Sarah, so the meaning of this name makes sense for two reasons: people would gaze at her beauty, and she was known to be a prophetess. Common abbrieviations of the name Jessica include "Jess" and "Jessie".
"Jessica" was the most popular female baby name throughout the 1980s[2] and 1990s[3] in the United States. It also rose to #1 in England and Wales in 2005, dropping to #3 in 2006.[4]
[edit] Fictional characters
- Jessica Albert, from the Dragon Quest VIII video game
- Lady Jessica Atreides, from Frank Herbert's Dune universe
- Jessica Bennett, from the soap Passions
- Jessica Buchanan, from the soap One Life to Live
- Jessica Drew, the original Spider-Woman
- Jessica Fletcher, a novelist and the protagonist of Murder, She Wrote
- Jessica Jones, from the Marvel Comics series Alias
- Jessica Rabbit, from Who Framed Roger Rabbit
- Jessica Sanders, of the television series Heroes
- Jessica Wakefield. from the Sweet Valley book series
- Jessica was the title character of the 1971 cult horror film Let's Scare Jessica to Death, portrayed by actress Zohra Lampert.
[edit] References
- ^ Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. A Dictionary of First Names. (1990). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-211651-7.
- ^ Most Popular 1000 Names of the 1980s. Social Security Administration (SSA), United States. Retrieved February 22, 2007.
- ^ Most Popular 1000 Names of the 1990s. Social Security Administration (SSA), United States. Retrieved February 22, 2007.
- ^ Top 100 names for baby girls in England and Wales. Office for National Statistics (ONS), United Kingdom. Retrieved February 22, 2007.
