Why is the Mona Lisa also called La Gioconda?

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Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, oil painting showing a woman with a slight smile and folded hands, seated before a distant, hazy landscape. — Mona Lisa *Mona Lisa*, oil on wood panel by Leonardo da Vinci, 1503–19; in the Louvre, Paris.

The Mona Lisa is called La Gioconda because the painting is widely believed to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo.12

The name La Gioconda (and its French equivalent, La Joconde) is derived from the surname of her husband, Francesco del Giocondo, who may have commissioned the work from Leonardo da Vinci. Additionally, the name carries a linguistic double meaning; in Italian, the term translates to "the jocund" or "the playful one," which some interpret as a reference to the sitter's faint, enigmatic smile. This identification was first suggested in 1550 by the artist biographer Giorgio Vasari.12