Jesse

Where Jesse comes from

From Ancient Greek Ἰεσσαί (Iessaí), from Hebrew יִשַׁי (Yishai).
— Wiktionary's entry for Jesse
  • Hebrew
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #28 among boys — 569 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1882
    Peak, #26
    660 babies named Jesse — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1913
    Jesse Owens born
    American track and field athlete
  4. 1941
    Jesse Jackson born
    American Baptist minister, activist, civil rights leader, politician, and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Hebrew of biblical origin.
  • A female given name, variant of Jessie.
Namesakes
  • Jesse Owens · American track and field athlete, 1913–1980
  • Jesse Jackson · American Baptist minister, activist, civil rights leader, politician, and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, 1941–2026
  • Jesse Eisenberg · American actor, born 1983
  • Jesse Lingard · English footballer, born 1992
  • Jesse James · American outlaw, confederate guerrilla, and train robber, 1847–1882

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.