What is "jessica"

fem. proper name, from Late Latin Jesca, from Greek Ieskha, from Hebrew Yiskah, name of a daughter of Haran (Gen. xi:29). Among the top 5 popular names for girls born in the U.S. every year between 1977 and 1997. The familiar form Jessie was one of many fem. names used 20c. for "cowardly or effeminate male."

Jessica may refer to:

"Jessica" (stylized JESSICA) is a single released by Dir En Grey on November 14, 2001.

"Jessica" is an instrumental piece by American rock band The Allman Brothers Band, released in December 1973 as the second single from the group's fourth studio album, Brothers and Sisters (1973). Written by guitarist Dickey Betts, the song is a tribute to Gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, in that it was designed to be played using only two fingers on the left hand.

Betts wrote the majority of "Jessica" at the band's farm in Juliette, Georgia. He named the song after his daughter, Jessica Betts, who was an infant when the song was released. She had bounced along to the song's rhythm, and Betts attempted to capture her attitude with the song's melody. He invited fellow guitarist Les Dudek over to collaborate on the song, and Dudek formed the song's bridge. The song's arrangement was crafted in prior to recording the song, which took place at Capricorn Sound Studios in Macon, Georgia.

Issued as a single following the immensely successful " Ramblin' Man", "Jessica" did not receive the same level of chart success. Despite this, it became a standard in rotations for classic rock radio stations in the following decades. Reviews of the song have been widely positive. Many critics at the time called it a highlight of the album, and a 2006 Wall Street Journal article deemed it "a true national heirloom". It is widely known as the theme to the BBC Two motoring program Top Gear.

Jessica is a historical novel based in real facts by Bryce Courtenay. It was published in 1998 and like other works from Courtenay covers several years in the life of the main character: Jessica Bergman. It was adapted into a mini-series starring Leeanna Walsman and Sam Neill which aired on Australian television in 2004. Jessica was voted Best Mini Series at the 2004 Chicago International Film Festival. It twice won the APA Who Weekly Reader's Choice Award, in 1999 and 2000.

Jessica is an Australian television miniseries based on the historical novel by Bryce Courtenay. Originally broadcast by Australia's Network Ten in 2004 and set in the Australian outback at the turn of the twentieth century, this family based drama follows a young woman who is unjustly institutionalised. Jessica won a 2005 Logie award for best mini-series or telemovie, plus two awards at the 2004 Chicago International Film Festival - one of them for the direction of Australian Peter Andrikidis.

"Jessica" is the second single from York-based rock band Elliot Minor. It was released on August 6, 2007. The band wrote this song out of their affection for Jessica Alba. The song was originally called "Walk With Me".

This was Elliot Minor's breakthrough single, and was one of the most popular singles during that period.

The music was written by Alex Davies, with lyrics by Davies, Ed Minton, and Dan Hetherton.

Jessica (originally Iessica, also Jesica, Jessicah or Jessika) is a female given name.

The oldest written record of the name with its current spelling is found as the name of a character in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice, where it belongs to the daughter of Shylock. The name may have been an Anglicisation of the biblical Iscah (from the Hebrew: יִסְכָּה : yiskāh), the name of a daughter of Haran briefly mentioned in the Book of Genesis 11:29. Iscah was rendered "Iesca" (Jeska) in the Matthew Bible version available in Shakespeare's day.

The original Hebrew name Yiskāh, means "foresight", or being able to see the potential in the future. The Hebrew root sakhah means "to see", so the name Yiskah, with the added future-tense yod, implies foresight. Iscah is the niece of Abraham.

"Jessica" was the first or second most popular female baby name in the United States from 1981-1997 before falling out of the Top 20 in 2004. It also rose to #1 in England and Wales in 2005, dropping to #3 in 2006. Common nicknames of the name Jessica include "Jess" and "Jessie".

Jessica is a 1962 film directed by Jean Negulesco. It stars Maurice Chevalier and Angie Dickinson.

Jessica is an 1890 painting by Dennis Miller Bunker in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It is considered one of Bunker's finest figure paintings, and has been described by art historian Theodore Stebbins as "among the most evocative" works of its time.

In October 1889 Bunker took a studio and living quarters at 3 North Washington Square in New York City, alongside friends and fellow artists Abbott Handerson Thayer, Thomas Dewing, and Charles A. Platt. Newly married and seeking to establish a reputation as a portrait artist in order to support himself and his bride, Bunker painted Jessica in the spring of 1890 using a hired professional model.

Jessica depicts an elegant and aristocratic looking woman in a black dress. She is painted bust length, life size and in profile, her fair skin and red hair set against a dark background. The painting evidences the influence of the circle of Bunker's intimates, including Thayer and Dewing, for its heightened sense of refinement. At the time of the painting Bunker wrote:

"I've been doing badly all day long— and I thought I was doing uncommonly well— but about four o' clock I scraped everything I had done for the last two days and my canvas is back again where I started it— and I am as blue as indigo."

Bunker died just after Christmas 1890 at the age of 29; in 1891 the painting was given to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, by a group of his admirers.

Artist and writer R. H. Ives Gammell wrote of the painting: "One of the most beautifully studied heads in American art. The transitions of tone and the minor shifts are stated with great subtlety without losing the larger color relations. At the same time the edges and accents throughout the canvas are given exactly the relative degree of definition perceptible to eyes focused so as to take in the entire area depicted. In the painting itself the young woman appears to exist in space, surrounded by atmosphere and light and shadow. Yet the draftsmanship is so sure that we never lose our sense of the form in all its inherent loveliness. The combination of qualities has only rarely been attained in the painting of a head."