Jessa
Jessa was given to 83 girls in 2025, #2,225 among girls’ names; 6,467 Americans have been recorded with it since 1918 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,380 Americans named Jessa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 10 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Jessa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Jessa mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Jessa is “a female given name.”
20th-century coinage from Jessie + feminine suffix -a; compare Jenna from Jenny.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Jessa?
#2,225 among girls’ names, 2025
Jessa fell from #545 in 2015 to #2,225 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.32 to 0.05 per 1,000.
572 babies in 2015, the peak
Jessa peaked in 2015, when 572 girls were given it, #545 among girls’ names. The 83 births of 2025 are 15% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 83 | #2,225 | 0.05 |
| 2024 | 96 | #2,035 | 0.06 |
| 2023 | 99 | #1,991 | 0.06 |
| 2022 | 122 | #1,713 | 0.07 |
| 2021 | 179 | #1,286 | 0.11 |
| 2020 | 167 | #1,325 | 0.10 |
| 2019 | 187 | #1,248 | 0.11 |
| 2018 | 242 | #1,059 | 0.14 |
| 2017 | 314 | #872 | 0.18 |
| 2016 | 433 | #676 | 0.24 |
Every recorded year (56)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 572 | #545 | 0.32 |
| 2014 | 332 | #835 | 0.19 |
| 2013 | 208 | #1,157 | 0.12 |
| 2012 | 255 | #989 | 0.14 |
| 2011 | 222 | #1,113 | 0.13 |
| 2010 | 242 | #1,033 | 0.14 |
| 2009 | 196 | #1,255 | 0.11 |
| 2008 | 124 | #1,780 | 0.07 |
| 2007 | 145 | #1,566 | 0.08 |
| 2006 | 138 | #1,569 | 0.07 |
| 2005 | 90 | #2,078 | 0.05 |
| 2004 | 116 | #1,671 | 0.06 |
| 2003 | 92 | #1,976 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 78 | #2,149 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 98 | #1,807 | 0.05 |
| 2000 | 91 | #1,871 | 0.05 |
| 1999 | 84 | #1,876 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 86 | #1,805 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 80 | #1,854 | 0.05 |
| 1996 | 103 | #1,545 | 0.06 |
| 1995 | 103 | #1,512 | 0.06 |
| 1994 | 113 | #1,417 | 0.06 |
| 1993 | 107 | #1,488 | 0.06 |
| 1992 | 98 | #1,575 | 0.05 |
| 1991 | 101 | #1,536 | 0.05 |
| 1990 | 85 | #1,720 | 0.04 |
| 1989 | 62 | #2,030 | 0.03 |
| 1988 | 52 | #2,192 | 0.03 |
| 1987 | 56 | #2,000 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 37 | #2,643 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 45 | #2,263 | 0.03 |
| 1984 | 37 | #2,532 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 28 | #3,011 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 24 | #3,460 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 48 | #2,134 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 39 | #2,454 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 33 | #2,692 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 35 | #2,490 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 26 | #3,031 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 14 | #4,453 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 9 | #6,150 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 10 | #5,516 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 7 | #6,953 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 9 | #5,659 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #8,842 | under 0.01 |
| 1918 | 5 | #5,189 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Jessa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Jessa has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 57 years of records.
Girls and boys named Jessa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Jessa, and how old are they?
6,380 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 6,467 Americans ever recorded as Jessa. The median Jessa alive today is 14 years old; half are between 10 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 5,700 people named Jessa (5,656 women and girls, 44 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,696 born in the U.S. The Census count matches that prediction to within 1%.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 177 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,070 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,120 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,010 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Jessa born?
The states with the most babies named Jessa are Florida, Texas and California, with 82% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 11 | #1,282 | 0.7× |
| Texas | 9 | #2,294 | 0.8× |
| California | 8 | #2,374 | 0.6× |
| New York | 6 | #1,930 | 0.3× |
Where Jessa is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Jessa is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1918 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Jessa with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 299,478 babies since 1880, Jessa is the third most given (2.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 83 of their 618 babies (13%), the second most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Jessa
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Jessa and names like it
- Compare Jessa and JessieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sJessa peaked in 2015.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Jessa since 1910.
- The top names of 2015The year the most babies were named Jessa.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Jessa alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with JMost given first.