Jessalyn
Fair, lovely maiden; compound of diminutive "Jess" and "lyn," meaning beautiful.
Name Census estimates that about 3,574 living Americans carry the first name Jessalyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jessalyn today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jessalyn births was 2001 (132 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jessalyn. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Jessalyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.6K
~ 1 in 95,902 Americans
Peak year
2001
132 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,065
Tracked since 1918
Census
Jessalyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,050 people with the first name Jessalyn, which placed it at #5,573 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,573
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
3,050 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jessalyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jessalyn is White at 63.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.7%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Jessalyn described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Jessalyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.8% · 1,945
- Hispanic or Latino20.7% · 630
- Two or more races5.4% · 164
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.9% · 150
- Black or African American4.1% · 126
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 35
Popularity
Jessalyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jessalyn from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,097 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jessalyn by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Jessalyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jessalyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Jessalyn, while Wisconsin, Utah, Tennessee recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 62 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jessalyn
The name Jessalyn is a modern variant of the English name Jessica, which originated as a Shakespearean coinage. It is believed that Shakespeare derived Jessica from the biblical name Iscah, a daughter of Haran mentioned in the Book of Genesis. The name Iscah is thought to be derived from the Hebrew word "ishah," meaning "woman."
While the name Jessica gained popularity after its appearance in Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice" in the late 16th century, the variant spelling Jessalyn is a more recent development. It emerged as a creative twist on the traditional Jessica, likely inspired by the trend of adding unique or unconventional spellings to familiar names.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jessalyn is found in the mid-20th century. In 1949, a woman named Jessalyn Gilsig was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She later became an actress, known for her roles in television series such as "Glee" and "Boston Public."
Another notable bearer of the name Jessalyn is Jessalyn Jennings, an American actress born in 1972. She has appeared in various films and television shows, including "The Big Easy" and "Rizzoli & Isles."
In the literary world, Jessalyn Gilsig is also the name of a minor character in the novel "The Raven's Gift" by Jon Peyton Cooke, published in 2009. This fictional Jessalyn is described as a young woman who works at a museum in Alaska.
Jessalyn Akiko-Simons is an American artist and author, born in 1978. She is known for her children's books, including "The Littlest Maple Leaf" and "The Littlest Evergreen," which celebrate diversity and acceptance.
Another notable figure with the name Jessalyn is Jessalyn Jennings, a Canadian singer-songwriter born in 1989. She has released several albums, including "Cosmic Serenity" and "Ethereal Embrace," which blend folk, pop, and ambient styles.
While the name Jessalyn is not as common as its parent name Jessica, it has gained a unique identity and has been borne by individuals across various fields, from entertainment to literature and the arts.
People
Jessalyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jessalyn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jessalyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jessalyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,574 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jessalyn going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 95,902 US residents.
Is Jessalyn a common name?
We classify Jessalyn as "Rare". It ranks above 95.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,673 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jessalyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Jessalyn was 2001, when 132 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jessalyn is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jessalyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,050 people with the name Jessalyn, or 1.01 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,573 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Jessalyn in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Jessalyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jessalyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,056 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Jessalyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jessalyn is White at 63.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.7%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Jessalyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jessalyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.8% (1,945 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Jessalyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jessalyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jessalyn in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Jessalyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jessalyn in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Jessalyn can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Jessalyn?
Want to know how many people share the name Jessalyn? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.