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ArchivesMy column on Jessica
Here is the link to my column on the name Jessica:
https://omaha.com/life-entertainment/local/cleveland-evans-shakespeare-is-the-author-of-the-name-jessica/article_a4c40d54-e712-11ee-bad4-1b98c7a4e7e5.html
There wasn't enough space to give Grant Smith's full argument about his belief that Jessica was created from the falconry term "jess". He believes that in the play Shylock refers in a punning way to his servant Launcelot (who also runs away) as a "haggard", which was a term for a wild or unmanageable hawk. Smith notes that hunting falcons or hawks were ususually female, and says the -ica ending of Jessica is the same Latin suffix found in words like Judaica and erotica, indicating "collective information about a subject", so that Jessica's name would mean "information about jesses" to someone who knew Latin grammar -- as Shakespeare probably did, as part of normal schooling in England in his day was learning Latin and having drills in its grammar.
Personally I am not convinced Shakespeare was ONLY thinking about jesses when he created the name. However, it is certainly true that his audience would have been much more familiar with falconry and with the word "jess" than modern audiences are, and surely he would have known many of the viewers of the play in his day would make an association between the name Jessica and the word "jesses". I think it is part of Shakespeare's brilliance that he was able to come up with a name for the character with combines Jewish, Italian, and falconry associations to make a completely appropriate name for her.
And I was certainly surprised that the first Jessicas who were born in the USA in the early 19th century were Jewish. I suppose the fact that Shylock and Jessica were some of the very few Jewish characters educated people would have known at the time overcame the fact that Shakespeare's Jessica converts to Christianity to run off with her lover.
https://omaha.com/life-entertainment/local/cleveland-evans-shakespeare-is-the-author-of-the-name-jessica/article_a4c40d54-e712-11ee-bad4-1b98c7a4e7e5.html
There wasn't enough space to give Grant Smith's full argument about his belief that Jessica was created from the falconry term "jess". He believes that in the play Shylock refers in a punning way to his servant Launcelot (who also runs away) as a "haggard", which was a term for a wild or unmanageable hawk. Smith notes that hunting falcons or hawks were ususually female, and says the -ica ending of Jessica is the same Latin suffix found in words like Judaica and erotica, indicating "collective information about a subject", so that Jessica's name would mean "information about jesses" to someone who knew Latin grammar -- as Shakespeare probably did, as part of normal schooling in England in his day was learning Latin and having drills in its grammar.
Personally I am not convinced Shakespeare was ONLY thinking about jesses when he created the name. However, it is certainly true that his audience would have been much more familiar with falconry and with the word "jess" than modern audiences are, and surely he would have known many of the viewers of the play in his day would make an association between the name Jessica and the word "jesses". I think it is part of Shakespeare's brilliance that he was able to come up with a name for the character with combines Jewish, Italian, and falconry associations to make a completely appropriate name for her.
And I was certainly surprised that the first Jessicas who were born in the USA in the early 19th century were Jewish. I suppose the fact that Shylock and Jessica were some of the very few Jewish characters educated people would have known at the time overcame the fact that Shakespeare's Jessica converts to Christianity to run off with her lover.
This message was edited 3/25/2024, 8:10 AM
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Replies
The name was not invented by Shakespeare. It was a popular Anglo-Norman Jewish name prior to the expulsion of the Jews in the 12th-century from England.
https://heraldry.sca.org/names/jewish.html
https://heraldry.sca.org/names/jewish.html
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Sorry, I don't accept the simple occurrence of the name on this list as the proof its existence before Shakespeare, especially since it is not explained what sources B and E are so that they could be checked for their accuracy. And even though the page claims Jessica existed in medieval times, it makes no claim about whether or not it was "popular".
I know from looking at hundreds of census records over the years how easy it is for someone looking at handwriting even from the early 20th century to misinterpret someone else's cursive writing as being a name they are familiar with when on closer inspection one sees it was really something else. There are scores of examples at Ancestry.com where indexers of census records have read Dean or Sam as "Sean", Persis as "Pearl", Warren or Darwin as "Darren", etc. It must be even more likely for someone to misinterpret a handwritten record from medieval times in this way. So I'd have to see the original record myself, or at least see that there were multiple different written recrods about the same person that different readers had interpreted the same way, before my skepticism would be overcome.
I know from looking at hundreds of census records over the years how easy it is for someone looking at handwriting even from the early 20th century to misinterpret someone else's cursive writing as being a name they are familiar with when on closer inspection one sees it was really something else. There are scores of examples at Ancestry.com where indexers of census records have read Dean or Sam as "Sean", Persis as "Pearl", Warren or Darwin as "Darren", etc. It must be even more likely for someone to misinterpret a handwritten record from medieval times in this way. So I'd have to see the original record myself, or at least see that there were multiple different written recrods about the same person that different readers had interpreted the same way, before my skepticism would be overcome.
This message was edited 4/19/2024, 8:15 AM
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I can speak of Jessica from a jewish prespective, and say that it's been used by Israelis in the past ~35 years (I also have an italian-israeli cousin, born in Rome, that bears this name). I don't think mosy israelis even know this is a Shakespearean name, much less of an apostate jew.
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Here in Brazil, Jessica (spelled with an accent as Jéssica) has been used here since at least the 70s. Shakespeare was familiar to Brazilians long before we started using Jéssica here, but I think it first became used in Brazil as an import from the English-speaking world. Quite a few other Shakespearean names, such as Ofélia, have been used in Brazil much longer.
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Very interesting! First I've seen of the falconry connection, and it is attractive. Ben Jonson was famously sarcastic about Shakespeare's school career - he emerged, said Ben, with 'small Latin and less Greek'! A lot must have depended on the teacher, of course. I'm unable to remember having met any Jewish Jessicas here in South Africa, but that proves nothing anyway. I'm most grateful that the link you've provided is working again; looking forward to lots more columns. Thank you!
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