Jessamine / Jesamine

[Nessalina]

Only just found out I'm pregnant, but been thinking of names for a while and this one has been in my head a lot lately.

I love the name Jessa, but I think I'd prefer it as the nn to a longer name, and I can't decide which:

Jessamine with a soft 's' sound, which shortens to Jessa but maybe a little bit of a mouthful (the 'min' feels a bit tacked on).

Jesamine with a hard 's', as in the song from the 60s! I feel like it flows better as a name, but the hard 's' means 'Jez' would be the natural nn which I don't like, though obviously she can still be Jess or Jessa.

Thoughts?

My thought is that it looks like you've messed up Jasmine. Jessica shortens naturally to Jess. Jesamine would be Jezza which you don't want!

Why not just call her Jessa?

Jessamy?

By soft s, do you mean z So it rhymes with mezzanine? In which case it would shorten to Jezza. So if you want Jessa as a nick name you'd be best of with the other log name.

I went to school with a Jessamyn (pronounced Jess-a-men). It was shortened to Jessie. I think you'll have trouble getting a Jessa shortening, because Jess or Jessie is such a common shortening.

If you like Jessa, then name her Jessa.

That's a good point, hadn't thought that it might end up being Jess/Jessie as a nn whichever we pick.
I like names to be shortenable, and I really like Jessa, so yeah, if we went for Jessa then she can still choose to be Jess if she wants too.
This is if we're even having a girl

I'm 22 weeks pregnant and we don't know if we are having a girl or a boy. However Jessa is one of our too names for a girl.

We've deliberated on lots of longer names for it and some peoples reactions have been "it's not a real name, use Jessica instead" but we like it and if we use it I think we will go for just Jessa.

I think that Jessamine is lovely although I have never met one. Very pretty looking and unusual. Do you pronounce it Jessa-min or Jessa-meen? If you want her to be called Jessa I would choose that. As the other one (Jesamine) is pronounced with a 'Jez' sound I don't think it would be so logical to go for that. Or Jessamy is nice too. As is Jessica though more widely used of course.

I had never heard of 'Jessa' until recently. It's nice. Do you watch 'Girls'- is that where you got it from?

Stick with Jessa.
Whichever of the other options you go for, she will spend her life explaining how to 1) spell it and 2) pronounce it. Think about it for a minute, that would drive most people mad within 24 hrs let alone a lifetime.

It's nice. I like jessamine, and I'm sure I've seen jessamyn before too. Jessa is a nice nn but quite 'current' (inspired by Girls?) and is rather keep a full name I think.

I'd disagree with what ItsNotaTest said. Even quite common names often have alternative spellings, eg Jane/Jayne, Ann/Anne, Katherine/Kathryn/Catherine, Teresa/Theresa, Claire/Clare, etc, etc. So having to spell your name out for official purposes is quite usual for most people, even so you don't normally have to do it every day so I can't see it as that much of a problem. Also the people you see every day will already know what it is!

In the multicultural society we have now you do expect to come across names you are unfamiliar with. If you follow ItsNot argument to its logical conclusion we would all share about 10 names.

I know an adult Jessamy and she's one of the best looking women I've ever known if that's helpful?

I know the song, why not go for Jesamine, pronounced as in the song and just shorten to Jesa.

I love Jessamine. It's one of the best of the botanical names. I prefer it to Jesamine, simply because I've never seen it spelled with just one "s" so it looks a bit off to me. Jessa is fab, too, a really wonderful nickname. (Or full name!) Jessamyn West was a prolific American writer.

I'm also a fan of Jessa but don't like either of those extended suggestions they sound made up and "trying too hard". Stick with Jessa

Jessamyn is nice actually, it looks more like it sounds - less chance of mispronouncing!
Yes, it was inspired by Girls The more I heard it the more I liked it!

Jessamine is a lovely name

I once worked with a Jessima - always liked the name and she was lovely too.

Watching 'Girls' last night, it was mentioned that the character 'Jessa''s full name was 'Jessamyn' - I think that is a sign, OP!

I spotted that too!!! It's the way forward!

Love Jessa, much nicer than Jessica.

I'd avoid the one with the single 's', its proximity to 'jizz-amine' would put me off!