What does "jesse" mean?

A representation of the genealogy of Christ, in decorative art, such as a genealogical tree in stained glass or a branched candlestick.

Jesse

//ˈd͡ʒɛs.i// name, noun

name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A representation of the genealogy of Christ, in decorative art, such as a genealogical tree in stained glass or a branched candlestick.

Proper Noun

1
The son of Obed and the father of king David.
"Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehemjudah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons; and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul."
2
A male given name from Hebrew of biblical origin.
"Jesse James was a lad that killed many a man, / He robbed the Glendale train. / He stole from the rich and he gave to the poor, / He'd a hand and a heart and a brain."
3
A female given name, variant of Jessie.
"We had decided to change the spelling of our names. Mine was to become Jesse instead of Jessie, and hers was to be Meribeth, not MaryBeth. We signed these names to the test papers we turned in at school. The teacher waved my paper in the air. "I can't give a mark to this person, because I don't know who this person is," she said. "Who is this Jesse?" She spelled the name out loud. "That is a boy's name. Does anybody here know a boy named Jesse?""

"He was chatting with his friend Jesse Jackson about the meeting that night."

From Ancient Greek Ἰεσσαί (Iessaí), from Hebrew יִשַׁי (Yishai).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.