The oldest written record of the name with its current spelling is found as the name of the Shakespearean character Jessica, from the play The Merchant of Venice.

The name may have been an Anglicisation of the biblical Iscah (from Hebrew: יִסְכָּה, romanized: yiskā́), the name of a daughter of Haran briefly mentioned in the Book of Genesis (11:29).

Iscah was rendered "Iesca" (Jeska) in the Matthew Bible version available in Shakespeare's day.

[2][3][4] Alternately, Shakespeare might have derived the name as a feminine version of the name Jesse, or from the word jess, a thin leather strap used to tether a bird such as a falcon in falconry.

[5] "Jessica" was the first- or second-most popular female baby name in the United States from 1981 to 1998[6][7] before falling out of the Top 20 in 2004.