Feminine form of Jacques (James), from Hebrew Ya'akov meaning 'supplanter.'
Jacquelyn is a feminine form of Jacques, the French rendering of Jacob, itself from the Hebrew 'Ya'aqov' — traditionally interpreted as 'supplanter' or 'one who follows at the heel,' referencing the biblical patriarch who grasped his twin brother Esau's heel at birth. Through the Latin 'Jacobus' and Old French 'Jacques,' the name traveled into English as James and into feminine forms like Jacqueline and Jacquelyn. The variant spelling with a 'y' was especially favored in mid-20th-century America, where creative orthography was a way of making a fashionable French name feel personal and individualized.
The name's ascent in the English-speaking world owes much to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, whose elegance, composure during national tragedy, and cultivation of the White House as a center of culture made the name synonymous with a particular vision of American grace. The name had already been rising through the 1950s — when the future First Lady was still Jacqueline Bouvier — but her prominence in the 1960s drove it to peak popularity. Earlier, the French novelist Colette had given the name literary luster, and in the 19th century French stage actress Jacqueline Comtat had carried it with theatrical flair.
The 'lyn' suffix in Jacquelyn reflects an American preference for names that end with that soft, open sound — a mid-century feminizing convention shared by Marilyn, Carolyn, and Evelyn. Today the name feels warmly vintage, associated with a generation of women who came of age in the postwar decades. It strikes a balance between formal elegance and approachable familiarity, a name that can shorten to Jackie in the schoolyard and expand to its full syllables in a professional context.