(m., f.) this common medieval name was used for both men and women in the forms Josse, Goce, &c., latinized as Joceus, Jocea, and later (through folk-etymology) Jodocus, Jodoca. It is the Old German Gozo from Gauta, the root of the folk-name Gothic (see also under Jocelyn). As a man’s name it died out in the 14th C, but as a woman’s name it survived, though in rare use. It has been noted in the 17th C, and in the 18th and 19th C survived in country districts. Charlotte Mary Yonge, History of ChristianNames, 2 vols. 1863. Revised ed. 1884 says of it, ‘once not uncommon amongst English ladies’. There was a correspondence on the subject in Notes and Queries 1874 when one correspondent said: ‘24 years ago I used to lodge at the house of one Joyce Bell, at Cleator, Cumberland.’ A further correspondence in 1896-7 produced evidence of the rare survival of the name in the Midlands. It was about this time that it was revived as a fashionable name, and it is now once more in frequent use.

Jocea Curia Regis Rolls 1167, 1200. Juicia Curia Regis Rolls 1210-12. Josse Hundred Rolls 1273. Jocey Hundred Rolls 1273. Jossy Hundred Rolls 1273.

F. An English re-shaping of the obsolete English Jocosa. It represents, perhaps, a fusion of Latin jocosa (from the noun, jocus), ‘merry (maid),’ ‘sportive (girl),’ and Latin justa, ‘just or equitable (maiden).’ The popularity of Joyce hardly precedes C19; indeed, one can hardly apply ‘popular’ to it before the latter half of the century. It is, however, to be hoped that the name survives into the very distant future.

A female name. Lower derives this name from Fr. joyeuse, cheerful, hilarious. Others derive it from Jocosa, a very common name in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; from the Latin jocosus, merry, sportive.

A Latin name, meaning: Merry.

A Teutonic name, meaning: To enjoy.