Jessie
Meaning
diminutive of Jesse/Jessica; traditionally traced to Hebrew, meaning 'gift' or 'God beholds'
The story
Jessie works both sides of the aisle: for girls it began as a pet form of Jessica, and in Scotland it long served as an affectionate form of Jean, while for boys it echoes the biblical Jesse, father of King David. The Hebrew roots behind those names are traditionally read as gift, or God beholds. That doubleness gave Jessie an unusually democratic American life: it was strongest in the records around the turn of the twentieth century, when casual, friendly forms were often given as full names, then eased through midcentury. The 1980s brought a modest second wind, and it is hard not to notice that Rick Springfield's Jessie's Girl was on every radio in 1981. Today it sits a notch quieter, a warm, unfussy classic with more than a century of steady use behind it.
The formal names behind Jessie
Jessie is an established short form of this name.
Jessica · Hebrew origin · God beholds
Jessie in song
Jessie's Girl
Rick Springfield (1981)
Springfield wrote it about quietly coveting a friend's girlfriend in a stained glass class, and it won him a Grammy while he was also starring on General Hospital.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Jessie peaked in the 1890s and the 1910s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
669 people · the #10,934 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 333,333 · median age 26
Among people named Jessie living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 74 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Jessie
People given the name Jessie in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 1999. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Jessie deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Jessie truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Jessie fits with your family’s names and surname.
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