Entry № 4963 · Greek origin

Jocasta Jocasta — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ joh-KAS-tuh /

Gender

Girl

Origin

Greek

Meaning

"Shining moon (Oedipus's mother in Greek tragedy)"

Syllables

First recorded

Ancient (Greek)

The meaning

A name that means "shining moon (oedipus's mother in greek tragedy)".

Jocasta is from the Greek Iokastē — the tragic mother-wife of Oedipus in Sophocles's Oedipus Rex (c. 429 BCE). A vintage Greek revival name.

Shining moon (Oedipus's mother in Greek tragedy) — a Greek name.

In its original form

The name in its native script.

Ἰοκάστη

Transliteration: Iokástē
Pronunciation: / dʒoʊˈkæs.tə /
Root: —
Grammatical form: —

Popularity

Where Jocasta stands.

Jocasta does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Namesakes

Jocastas before her.

Real people

—

In fiction

Jocasta

Sophocles's Oedipus Rex.

c. 429 BCE

Jocasta Nu

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.

2002

Names connected to Jocasta.

Numerology

The number behind Jocasta.

The Nurturer

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Jocasta reduce to 6, The Nurturer. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.