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Sorry, I don't accept the simple occurrence of the name on this list as the proof its existence before Shakespeare, especially since it is not explained what sources B and E are so that they could be checked for their accuracy. And even though the page claims Jessica existed in medieval times, it makes no claim about whether or not it was "popular".

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I know from looking at hundreds of census records over the years how easy it is for someone looking at handwriting even from the early 20th century to misinterpret someone else's cursive writing as being a name they are familiar with when on closer inspection one sees it was really something else. There are scores of examples at Ancestry.com where indexers of census records have read Dean or Sam as "Sean", Persis as "Pearl", Warren or Darwin as "Darren", etc. It must be even more likely for someone to misinterpret a handwritten record from medieval times in this way. So I'd have to see the original record myself, or at least see that there were multiple different written recrods about the same person that different readers had interpreted the same way, before my skepticism would be overcome.

This message was edited 4/19/2024, 8:15 AM