the name Jessica

[Sarah Benor]

Jewish name experts,

I'm researching the name Jessica and what to get your input. Do you agree with this analysis?

Likely from Hebrew: יִסְכָּה (Yiskah) meaning "to behold." Biblical information: Yiskah was the daughter of Haran, Abraham’s brother (Genesis 11:29). She is noted for her beauty, and her name is often associated with vision or insight. The name Jessica first appears in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice as the daughter of Shylock, believed to be inspired by the biblical name Yiskah. Rabbinic information: Rashi interprets Yiskah as another name for Sarah, also a daughter of Haran: "This was Sarah; she was also named Jiscah (from a root meaning  'to see,' 'to look') because she could see the future by holy inspiration, and because everybody looked (gazed) at her beauty (Megillah 14a). The name Jiscah also has reference to princely dignity (נסיכות) just as the name Sarah (שרה) has an allusion to 'ruling' (שררה)" (Rashi on Genesis 11:29).

[Sarah Benor]

Thanks to Grant Smith's email (see below), I'm changing my explanation to this:

The name Jessica first appears in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice as the Jewish daughter of Shylock. Some have posited that this name was inspired by the biblical name Yiskah (based on similarity of sound), but linguistic and literary evidence suggests that it was a reference to falconry: the jess strings by which a hawk’s legs are tethered to its master (Grant Smith, Names as Metaphors in Shakespeare's Comedies). The fact that Jessica is a Jewish character and the theory about Jessica being a translation of Yiskah may have contributed to associations of this name with Jewishness.

On Wed, Oct 2, 2024 at 1:13 PM Smith, Grant <gsm...@ewu.edu> wrote:

Sarah,

As I write in my book Names as Metaphors in Shakespeare's Comedies, there is a much simpler explanation for the name Jessica. Shakespeare was not a Hebrew scholar but makes many references to falconry. In this name his reference is:

to the jess strings by which a hawk’s legs are tethered to its master. The reference fits the character in the specific sense that hawks used for hunting were female. Thematically, Jessica is conflicted by the obedience a daughter should, supposedly, owe to her father and by her passion for Lorenzo. She feels that her “house is hell” (2.3.2), feels “ashamed to be my father’s child” (17), and therefore plans to defy social custom and run away, much like Launcelot also defies his legalistic conscience and runs away as if he were the offspring of a haggard, as Shylock laughingly suggests.

 

We see similar conflicts in the hearts of many Shakespeare heroines – Sylvia, Hermia, Juliet, Anne Page, Ophelia, and Desdemona, to name a few. Shakespeare refers to Desdemona with the same exact metaphor of falconry. She tells her father, “I do perceive here a divided duty” (1.3.181). Half her duty is to her new husband, and Othello then refers to her as his falcon: “If I do prove her haggard, / Though that her jesses were my heart-strings, / I’ld whistle her off” (3.3.260-262).

 

The –ica ending of Jessica’s name is a simple Latin suffix, the nominative feminine singular of –icus, indicating the collective information we might have about any specific subject, such as the words Judaica, Hebraica, or erotica. In this case, it is what we know about jess strings. Thus, anyone who has suffered through the Latin drills of an Elizabethan grammar school would readily see that Jessica’s name refers directly and simply to her jess strings, and her story symbolizes her breaking free from the control of her father. Of course, the story of this teenage daughter resonates throughout our world even if we don’t know much about falconry or Latin grammar.

Grant W. Smith, Ph.D.                             Phone:  509-570-3324
Prof. English/Humanities, Emeritus        
Eastern Washington University                 Email:  gsm...@ewu.edu
Patterson Hall 211 A
Cheney, WA  99004-2430

Recent book: Names as Metaphors in Shakespeare's Comedies, Vernon Press, 2021.
https://www.ewu.edu/cale/english/faculty-staff/#emeritus

See also the American Name Society at http://www.americannamesociety.org
See also the Intl. Council of Onomastic Sciences at http://www.icosweb.net/

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From: jewish...@googlegroups.com <jewish...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Sarah Benor <sbeno...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 2, 2024 12:47 PM
To: Jewish Names <jewish...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Jewish Names] the name Jessica

 

Jewish name experts,

I'm researching the name Jessica and what to get your input. Do you agree with this analysis?

Likely from Hebrew: יִסְכָּה (Yiskah) meaning "to behold." Biblical information: Yiskah was the daughter of Haran, Abraham’s brother (Genesis 11:29). She is noted for her beauty, and her name is often associated with vision or insight. The name Jessica first appears in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice as the daughter of Shylock, believed to be inspired by the biblical name Yiskah. Rabbinic information: Rashi interprets Yiskah as another name for Sarah, also a daughter of Haran: "This was Sarah; she was also named Jiscah (from a root meaning  'to see,' 'to look') because she could see the future by holy inspiration, and because everybody looked (gazed) at her beauty (Megillah 14a). The name Jiscah also has reference to princely dignity (נסיכות) just as the name Sarah (שרה) has an allusion to 'ruling' (שררה)" (Rashi on Genesis 11:29).

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[Reuven Chaim Klein]

The original way you put it is what I have in my notes (I was actually planning on writing an article about this for after Sukkos, so I already started thinking about it). My source is https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2024/01/02/episode-173-fooling-around/ (which all-around is a great podcast and I've learned a lot from it). There is also discussion among Jewish commentators about whether Iscah is indeed Sarai like the Talmud asserts, I mentioned some of those sources in this essay: https://seforimblog.com/2015/10/avunculate-marriage-in-bible/ and since then have found more discussion on the topic.

Professor Smith's suggestion about the falconry connection is very interesting, and may add an extra wrinkle to Shakespeare's punning, but I really do think that the jump from יסכה to Jessica does not require one to be a Hebrew scholar, especially because Wycliffe's translation of Gen. 11:29 already translates יסכה as Jescha and Coverdale's translation reads Jiſca (=Jisca). I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that Shakespeare was familiar with Coverdale's translation, even if apparently he mainly used the Geneva Bible. 

I'm geoblocked here in the Holy Land from seeing the whole discussion, but this book by a Shakespeare scholar https://books.google.co.il/books?id=f3aIBAAAQBAJ&lpg=PA322&ots=6SWn2Wx6Tm&dq=jessica%20iscah%20etymology&lr&pg=PA322#v=onepage&q&f=false points out that Jessica is not the only obscure name used in the Merchant of Venice that comes from Genesis 10-11.

Gmar Chasimah Tovah,

Reuven Chaim Klein

Beitar Illit, Israel

Author of: God versus Gods & Lashon HaKodesh

ORCiD | LinkedIN | Google Scholar | Amazon

[Sarah Benor]

I'm forwarding this from Grant Smith.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Smith, Grant <gsm...@ewu.edu>
Date: Sat, Oct 5, 2024 at 3:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Jewish Names] the name Jessica
To: sbeno...@gmail.com <sbeno...@gmail.com>, yesh...@gmail.com <yesh...@gmail.com>
Cc: Jewish Names <jewish...@googlegroups.com>, jessic...@yahoo.com <jessic...@yahoo.com>

It helps to ask what Shakespeare's audience would have understood. My premise is that he coined names that would be readily understood, and my book, Names as Metaphors in Shakespeare's Comedies, analyzes every name in every comedy and provides a handy summary of semiotic theory.

Grant W. Smith, Ph.D.                             Phone:  509-570-3324
Prof. English/Humanities, Emeritus        
Eastern Washington University                 Email:  gsm...@ewu.edu
Patterson Hall 211 A
Cheney, WA  99004-2430

Recent book: Names as Metaphors in Shakespeare's Comedies, Vernon Press, 2021.
https://www.ewu.edu/cale/english/faculty-staff/#emeritus

See also the American Name Society at http://www.americannamesociety.org
See also the Intl. Council of Onomastic Sciences at http://www.icosweb.net/

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From: jewish...@googlegroups.com <jewish...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Reuven Chaim Klein <yesh...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 5, 2024 11:38 AM
To: sbeno...@gmail.com <sbeno...@gmail.com>
Cc: Smith, Grant <gsm...@ewu.edu>; Jewish Names <jewish...@googlegroups.com>; jessic...@yahoo.com <jessic...@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Jewish Names] the name Jessica

 

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[Reuven Chaim Klein]

I almost forgot to share, I recently did a two-part series on the names Sarah/Sarai/Yiscah - "The Princess' Gaze" Part 1: https://ohr.edu/this_week/whats_in_a_word/11857 and Part 2: https://ohr.edu/this_week/whats_in_a_word/11858