Jesslyn
A feminine name of English origin, a combination of "Jess" and "Lynn".
Name Census estimates that about 2,477 living Americans carry the first name Jesslyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jesslyn today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jesslyn births was 2017 (101 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jesslyn. 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 Jesslyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.5K
~ 1 in 138,375 Americans
Peak year
2017
101 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,187
Tracked since 1915
Census
Jesslyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,981 people with the first name Jesslyn, which placed it at #7,634 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
#7,634
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
1,981 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
52.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jesslyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jesslyn is White at 52.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.0%) and Black (6.1%). 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 Jesslyn 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 Jesslyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White52.9% · 1,047
- Hispanic or Latino30.0% · 594
- Black or African American6.1% · 120
- Two or more races5.1% · 102
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.5% · 90
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 28
Popularity
Jesslyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jesslyn from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 809 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Jesslyn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jesslyn 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 Jesslyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jesslyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. Texas, California, Alabama recorded the most babies named Jesslyn, while Virginia, Oklahoma, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 57 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jesslyn
The name Jesslyn is a variant of the English name Jocelyn, which is derived from the French Joscelin. This name has its roots in the medieval Germanic name Gautcelin, which is composed of the elements "gaut" meaning "people" and "celin" meaning "little."
The name Joscelin first appeared in the 11th century and was initially more commonly given to men. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Joscelin de Courtenay, a French nobleman who lived from around 1060 to 1130. He was a prominent figure in the First Crusade and served as the Count of Edessa in the Crusader states.
In the 12th century, the name gained popularity among women as well. One notable example is Jocelyn, Countess of Leicester, who lived from around 1188 to 1244. She was an English noblewoman and the wife of Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester.
The variant spelling Jesslyn emerged in the 19th century as an English variant of the name Jocelyn. One of the earliest recorded instances of this spelling was Jesslyn, the daughter of British politician and writer Thomas Love Peacock, born in 1833.
Another notable bearer of the name Jesslyn was Jesslyn Fax Bahr, an American actress born in 1913. She appeared in several films in the 1930s and 1940s, including the 1936 comedy "Piccadilly Jim" and the 1939 drama "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle."
In the literary world, Jesslyn Muir was an American author and editor born in 1932. She is best known for her work as an editor for the University of Iowa Press and her memoir "The Couple Next Door," published in 1988.
Jesslyn Farrell is a contemporary figure, an American politician who has served as a member of the Washington State Senate since 2013. Born in 1967, she represents the 46th legislative district in the Seattle metropolitan area.
People
Jesslyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jesslyn 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
Jesslyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jesslyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,477 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jesslyn 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 138,375 US residents.
Is Jesslyn a common name?
We classify Jesslyn as "Rare". It ranks above 94.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,595 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jesslyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Jesslyn was 2017, when 101 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jesslyn is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jesslyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,981 people with the name Jesslyn, or 0.66 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,634 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 Jesslyn 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 Jesslyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jesslyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,974 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Jesslyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jesslyn is White at 52.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.0%) and Black (6.1%). 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 Jesslyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jesslyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.9% (1,047 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 Jesslyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jesslyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jesslyn 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 Jesslyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jesslyn 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 Jesslyn 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 have Jesslyn as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.