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The regular use of this name in Latin America goes back to a telenovela character named Yesenia who was invented by the Mexican author Yolanda Vargas Dulche. No one knows why she chose the name for the character, though the most common idea is that she got it from the name of a South American palm tree, as this site says.
Yesenia was used on rare occasions in the early 20th century in Russia as a feminine form of Yesenin. Yesenin is a Russian surname which was used as a male given name in honor of the poet Sergey Yesenin:
http://www.geocities.com/sulawesiprince/russpoets/yeseninbio.html
There's an outside chance that Yolanda Vargas Dulche found this rare Russian name somewhere and used it for the gypsy heroine of her story, though the palm tree idea is just as likely.
Yesenia was used on rare occasions in the early 20th century in Russia as a feminine form of Yesenin. Yesenin is a Russian surname which was used as a male given name in honor of the poet Sergey Yesenin:
http://www.geocities.com/sulawesiprince/russpoets/yeseninbio.html
There's an outside chance that Yolanda Vargas Dulche found this rare Russian name somewhere and used it for the gypsy heroine of her story, though the palm tree idea is just as likely.
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More probably
the inspiration of the name was not the name of the plant but the English Jesse, pronounced in Spanish very often as Yesse and feminized.
In Spanish, the plant is not called Jessenia, but palma, palma de sejé, milpesos o patabá and Jessenia bataua is only the scientific name. On the other hand, this plant is known in the Amazonas area, not in the rest of America (or Spain).
Yolandas Vargas Dulché distorted other names, for example the Catalan Manelic for her son Manelick.
the inspiration of the name was not the name of the plant but the English Jesse, pronounced in Spanish very often as Yesse and feminized.
In Spanish, the plant is not called Jessenia, but palma, palma de sejé, milpesos o patabá and Jessenia bataua is only the scientific name. On the other hand, this plant is known in the Amazonas area, not in the rest of America (or Spain).
Yolandas Vargas Dulché distorted other names, for example the Catalan Manelic for her son Manelick.
1
That's also a good possibility.
I have used Yesenia as an example of a Hispanic-American name that Anglo-Americans know little about in my classes for years. I was very surprised when last year I had some students from Tajikistan in my classes and they told me about the Russian derivation. They said they knew Russian women named Yesenia, and all of them were elderly and born before Vargas Dulché created her character.
It is too bad Vargas Dulché died of cancer in 1999 so we can't ask her how she came up with Yesenia. Perhaps someone will write a biography of her some day that will tell us. :)
I have used Yesenia as an example of a Hispanic-American name that Anglo-Americans know little about in my classes for years. I was very surprised when last year I had some students from Tajikistan in my classes and they told me about the Russian derivation. They said they knew Russian women named Yesenia, and all of them were elderly and born before Vargas Dulché created her character.
It is too bad Vargas Dulché died of cancer in 1999 so we can't ask her how she came up with Yesenia. Perhaps someone will write a biography of her some day that will tell us. :)
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I've read on a Russian name site that Yesenia has is derived from Arabic Hasan, but I don't know is this info accurate. I guess it became popular because of the Yesenin-association, as you already pointed out. The Mexican film vas popular in the Soviet Union, too.
What I thought is that Yesenia (in Russia) could be also derived from Jasna, Yasen or "yasen'" which is the name for Ash tree in Russian. I don't know how "ya" could turn into "ye", but I read on another name forum that Yesenias get often called Yasya. Might that be because of the origin? (Yevgeny and Yevgeniya's nickname is Zhenya because the name itself came from France, where Yevgeny was Eugene).
Well, my sources are bad and very likely unaccurate. I used mostly baby name forums, where people are not very interested in the etymology.
I found one source that looked respectable:
http://znachenie.ru/znachenie_familii/id/Esenin
There was said that the last name "Yesenin" has its origins in an old name Yesip (which is a form of Osip) - maybe Yesenia has the same origin, too?
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%AF%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C
http://otvet.mail.ru/question/10891169/
http://www.woman.ru/psycho/medley6/thread/3833554/
http://www.dvddom.ru/details/13445
What I thought is that Yesenia (in Russia) could be also derived from Jasna, Yasen or "yasen'" which is the name for Ash tree in Russian. I don't know how "ya" could turn into "ye", but I read on another name forum that Yesenias get often called Yasya. Might that be because of the origin? (Yevgeny and Yevgeniya's nickname is Zhenya because the name itself came from France, where Yevgeny was Eugene).
Well, my sources are bad and very likely unaccurate. I used mostly baby name forums, where people are not very interested in the etymology.
I found one source that looked respectable:
http://znachenie.ru/znachenie_familii/id/Esenin
There was said that the last name "Yesenin" has its origins in an old name Yesip (which is a form of Osip) - maybe Yesenia has the same origin, too?
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%AF%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C
http://otvet.mail.ru/question/10891169/
http://www.woman.ru/psycho/medley6/thread/3833554/
http://www.dvddom.ru/details/13445
1
I will try to contact
with a Mexican philologist that I know from another board to ask about Yesenia. Perhaps the novel itself has a clue about the name or when the novel was made soap opera (twice) in interviews or articles it was explained and some of her relatives or acquaitances remember it (both adaptations to TV were extraordinarily popular).
with a Mexican philologist that I know from another board to ask about Yesenia. Perhaps the novel itself has a clue about the name or when the novel was made soap opera (twice) in interviews or articles it was explained and some of her relatives or acquaitances remember it (both adaptations to TV were extraordinarily popular).
1