What was the name of J.K. Rowling’s first child?

J.K. Rowling’s first child was her daughter Jessica.

Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes was born in Portugal in July 1993. She is Rowling’s daughter with Jorge Arantes, whom Rowling married in 1992. Rowling and Arantes separated later in 1993, after which Rowling moved with Jessica to Edinburgh, Scotland.

Jessica’s birth belongs to the period between Rowling’s work as an English teacher in Porto and the publication of the first Harry Potter novel. Rowling was raising her daughter while writing and revising the manuscript that would launch her literary career. This chronology is sometimes compressed in popular retellings, but the Portuguese marriage, Jessica’s birth, the move to Edinburgh, and the book’s later publication were separate events.

Rowling later had two more children: a son, David, and a daughter, Mackenzie. Jessica is therefore the oldest of her three children. The name is also sometimes confused with the name of Harry Potter actor Bonnie Wright’s character, Ginny Weasley; Jessica is a biographical figure, not a character in the wizarding novels.