Jesslyn

Meaning of Jesslyn

Jesslyn, pronounced JESS-lin (/dʒɛs.lɪn/), is a modern Anglo-American elaboration that fuses the familiar diminutive “Jess” with the productive suffix “-lyn,” thereby bridging two etymological streams: the Hebrew Yiskāh, source of Jessica and meaning “to gaze upon,” and the Old Germanic Gautzelin, root of Jocelyn and connoting “member of the Gauts.” First attested in U.S. birth records of the early twentieth century, the name has maintained a low-frequency yet uninterrupted presence, oscillating between ranks 559 and 915 and averaging fewer than one hundred annual registrations—a statistical profile that marks it as uncommon without being unfamiliar. Because it marries the soft consonantal onset of Jessica to the liquid cadence of Jocelyn, Jesslyn conveys a balance of approachability and distinction, a quality often valued by parents seeking individuality within conventional phonetic boundaries.