Jessia
A feminine name meaning "wealthy" or "prosperous", derived from the Hebrew name Yishai.
Name Census estimates that about 640 living Americans carry the first name Jessia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jessia today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jessia births was 2019 (42 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jessia. 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.
People living today
640
~ 1 in 535,554 Americans
Peak year
2019
42 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,343
Tracked since 1976
Census
Jessia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 722 people with the first name Jessia, which placed it at #15,811 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
#15,811
National first-name rank
People counted
722
722 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
47.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jessia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jessia is White at 47.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (31.4%) and Black (14.4%). 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 Jessia 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 Jessia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White47.4% · 342
- Hispanic or Latino31.4% · 227
- Black or African American14.4% · 104
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.0% · 29
- Two or more races2.4% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 3
Popularity
Jessia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jessia from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 222 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Jessia remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jessia 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 Jessia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jessias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Texas, Maryland recorded the most babies named Jessia, while Virginia, New York, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 14 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jessia
The name Jessia has its origins in the Hebrew language and is a variant of the name Jessica, which itself is a derivative of the biblical name Yssche'ar or Yischah. This ancient Hebrew name means "God beholds" or "foresight of God."
Jessia gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in Europe, where it was often used as a feminine form of the Hebrew name Yishai. In the Bible, Yishai was the father of King David and a prominent figure in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
The earliest recorded use of the name Jessia can be traced back to the 12th century in England, where it was occasionally bestowed upon girls born into noble families. One notable historical figure with this name was Jessia of Conches, a 12th-century French philosopher and scholar known for her contributions to the fields of logic and metaphysics.
In the 16th century, the name Jessia gained traction in Spain and other parts of the Iberian Peninsula, where it was often spelled as "Jesia" or "Xesia." During this period, Jesia de Avila, a Carmelite nun and mystic, gained recognition for her spiritual writings and her role in the Counter-Reformation.
As the name spread across Europe, it also found its way to other parts of the world through colonization and migration. In the 18th century, Jessia Bartlett, an American writer and poet from Massachusetts, became known for her work advocating for women's rights and education.
Another notable bearer of the name was Jessia Harriet Monteith, a 19th-century British philanthropist and social reformer who dedicated her life to improving the living conditions of the working class in Manchester, England.
During the 20th century, the name Jessia continued to be used, albeit less frequently than its more popular counterpart, Jessica. One prominent example is Jessia Tandy, an English actress born in 1909, who enjoyed a successful career on stage, television, and film, earning numerous accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
People
Jessia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jessia 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
Jessia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jessia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 640 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jessia 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 535,554 US residents.
Is Jessia a common name?
We classify Jessia as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 661 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jessia most popular?
The single biggest year for Jessia was 2019, when 42 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jessia 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 Jessia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 722 people with the name Jessia, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,811 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 Jessia 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 Jessia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jessia leans strongly female. 704 people counted with this name were female (97.8%), compared with 16 male bearers (2.2%). 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 Jessia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jessia is White at 47.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (31.4%) and Black (14.4%). 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 Jessia most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jessia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.4% (342 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 Jessia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jessia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jessia 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 Jessia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jessia 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 Jessia 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 common is the name Jessia?
See how many people share the name Jessia on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.