Jessica
Around 8,000 Polish women carry it, but it's fading now: after a run through the 2000s, hardly any girls get it anymore, and it has always gone to daughters only. From Hebrew, meaning "god beholds".
Jessica Pronunciation
What Jessica means
Where Jessica comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
The name Jessica reaches back to Hebrew roots, though the spelling we know was set down by Shakespeare. In The Merchant of Venice he gave the name to Shylock's daughter, and scholars trace his choice to Iscah, a figure listed in the Book of Genesis. The Hebrew sense reads as "God beholds," the idea of a watching gaze turned toward a person.
For centuries the name stayed rare. Then the English-speaking world took it up, and by the late twentieth century Jessica sat at the top of birth registers across Britain and America.
In a Polish class register, Jessica turns up among the Zuzannas and Amelias, marked as English by its sound alone. Its short Polish gloss, dar boga, softens the older reading into a gift. That older reading holds firm. God beholds, and the name still says so.
How many people are named Jessica
1 in 2830 women in Poland is named Jessica. 7,966 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #401 among female names.
Jessica's popularity over time
8 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #772 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #401 name among living women, even as it slips to #772 among newborns.
Where parents choose Jessica
Jessica is most popular in Opole, 174% above the national average (8 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+131%) and Silesian (+73%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Warmian-Masurian, 74% and 56% below average respectively.
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Opole
+174%1 in 5,762 babies
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian
+131%1 in 6,836 babies
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Silesian
+73%1 in 9,103 babies
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Subcarpathian
−74%1 in 60,283 babies
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Warmian-Masurian
−56%1 in 35,897 babies
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Masovian
−55%1 in 35,427 babies
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Opole+174% 8 born1 in 5,762 babies+174%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian+131% 16 born1 in 6,836 babies+131%
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Silesian+73% 25 born1 in 9,103 babies+73%
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Greater Poland+39% 19 born1 in 11,329 babies+39%
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Lower Silesian+30% 13 born1 in 12,087 babies+30%
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Lubusz+27% 4 born1 in 12,414 babies+27%
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Pomeranian−4% 9 born1 in 16,369 babies−4%
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West Pomeranian−7% 5 born1 in 16,885 babies−7%
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Lublin−23% 5 born1 in 20,535 babies−23%
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Lesser Poland−24% 11 born1 in 20,629 babies−24%
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Łódź−25% 6 born1 in 21,120 babies−25%
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Holy Cross−43% 2 born1 in 27,717 babies−43%
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Masovian−55% 10 born1 in 35,427 babies−55%
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Warmian-Masurian−56% 2 born1 in 35,897 babies−56%
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Subcarpathian−74% 2 born1 in 60,283 babies−74%
Jessica as a middle name
Jessica is a first name for 7,966 women in Poland and a middle name for another 1,516, an 84/16 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 219th, between Oktawia (1,522) and Liwia (1,515).
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#217 Florentyna1,546
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#218 Oktawia1,522
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#219 Jessica1,516
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#220 Liwia1,515
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#221 Edwarda1,514