Jessie...?

[Fergie38]

Is the name 'Jessie' short for, or interchangeable with some other name.   

Cheers.

[Berlin-Bob]

Jessica ?

see Name variations and nicknames
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_%28given_name%29

[aghadowey]

Have seen it used in Scotland for Janet but often is a name in its own right.

[Maggie1895]

I have a niece called Jessie, which is short for Jessica, but that's only in the past few years.
All the Jessies in my family tree in the 19th/20th century were Jessie - no short form.   Most of the interchangeable christian names I have are Jean and Jane, Jessie seems one of the definite ones
These are from the west - Dumfries and Lanarkshire.    It may be different in other areas of Scotland?
Maggie

[aghadowey]

This site on Scottish baby names gives it as a form of Jean-
http://www.how-to-choose-baby-names.com/scottish-baby-names.html

[MonicaL]

Hi Fergie

Janet and Jessie are the most common forms of these interchangeable names. Nowadays, Jessie is more commonly associated with Jessica but not in that period in Scotland.

A good site for first name variants with a bias towards Scotland is www.whatsinaname.net

Monica

[jessden]

My name is Jessie and I was called after my grandmother who was born in 1875.  I had an aunt called Jessie on both sides of the family.  It was not short for Jessica - people in England tend to make this assumption but I found that one of the advantages of coming to live in Scotland was that people here did not think that my name was shortened or peculiar.

If you go back in time you tend to find instances in the Old Parish Records where a child was baptised with a particular name but was known by a different version of that name which shows up in other records. The interchangeable use of Jean/Janet/Jessie is just one example of this practice.

Jessie

[K44ENF]

If my ancesters are anything to go by, Jessie can be a form of just about any name! I have come across Margaret's, Mary's, and Hannah's who called themselves Jessie at some time or another.

[Fergie38]

Thanks for all the replies folks.
I was glad to see there is a link between 'Jessie' and 'Janet' as it makes a couple of things clearer now.
And thanks for the web links. The one from Monica is a very usefull one to have.

Cheers.