Why is the Mona Lisa called La Joconde in France?

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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 known as La Joconde in France because the name is derived from the surname of the sitter, Lisa Gherardini, who was the wife of the Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo.12

In Italian, the painting is referred to as La Gioconda, a title that plays on the merchant's surname, Giocondo, while also carrying the meaning of "the jocund" or "playful" one. The French title, La Joconde, is a direct adaptation of this Italian name, maintaining the same linguistic connection to the sitter's married name and its associated meaning.1