Jessica at a glance
- Meaning
- “to behold”
- Gender
- Girl
- Origin
- Hebrew
- Pronunciation
- JES-ih-kuh
- Nicknames
- Jess, Jessie
- Other forms
- Jessika, Gessica, Iscah
Where the name Jessica comes from
Jessica first appears in Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice, as the daughter of Shylock. Shakespeare probably based it on Iscah, a minor woman in the Book of Genesis whose name may mean “to see” or “to look”. It became very common in Britain and the US in the 1980s and 1990s.