Arsema
Feminine
Arsema is an Eritrean and Ethiopian name, and it belongs to a saint: a virgin martyr venerated in the Orthodox churches of both countries, identified with the Armenian Hripsime who fled east and was killed for her faith at the start of the fourth century. The name traveled from Armenia to the Horn of Africa and stayed there.
How old is the name Arsema?
Arsema first appears in US birth records in 1995 — 30 years ago. The typical Arsema is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Arsema are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arsema most popular?
Arsema peaked in 2015, reaching #2890 nationally. Today it ranks #4758, 1,868 places below that high. See the whole 2015 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Hripsime to Arsema
The story of Arsema
The story that carried the name is one of the oldest in Christian Armenia: a community of women who fled persecution eastward and were killed, and whose deaths are given in Armenian tradition as the cause of the king's conversion. The Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox churches took the saint into their own calendar under the Ge'ez form Arsema, and there she has been honored for centuries with churches and a feast day of her own. The name is now ordinary in Eritrea and in the Ethiopian highlands, and it came to American records with families from both.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The underlying Armenian Hripsime has no accepted etymology, and the Ge'ez form Arsema inherits that silence. What is documented is the saint and her cult, which is unusually well recorded for a name this old.
How the name formed
- Hripsime
- Arsema
Related forms: Հռիփսիմե · አርሴማ
Pronouncing Arsema
ar-SEH-mah
Three syllables, stress in the middle, all vowels open and short. English speakers manage it on the first or second try.
Nicknames for Arsema
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1995
- Most girls named
- 201560 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2890reached in 2015
- Change vs 2024
- +3.7%28 in 2025, from 27
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Arsema in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Հռիփսիմե in Armenian — related form
- አርሴማ in Amharic — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Maryland, Washington, Texas.
Arsemas among us
people named Arsema are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 57,402 born in 2025 was named Arsema
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Jalene test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Arsema's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jalene climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jalene's path sketches the road Arsema is walking now.
Arsema sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Arsema is headed
Arsema should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Arsema beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Arsema in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries a documented saint and a documented cult, which is a real inheritance.
- The syllables are open and simple, so English speakers say it correctly quickly.
- It is immediately recognized in Eritrean and Ethiopian communities.
- It is rare in the United States outside those communities and will be spelled out often.
- The meaning is not recoverable, so a child who looks for one will find only the saint.
- Arsema and Arsenia are close enough that the second gets written by mistake.
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What they receive
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Arsema
Feminine · #4758 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Arsemas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Arsema are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Arsema in 2025?
- Arsema ranks #4758 among US girl names in 2025, with 28 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Arsema?
- About 1 in every 57,402 US girls born in 2025 was named Arsema — 28 in all.
- Will my child share the name Arsema with classmates?
- Arsema will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Arsema
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Marylou#4758 · Landon#4758 · Lexa#4758 · Alysia#4758 · Ixchel#4758 · Parisa#4758 · Jumana#4758 · Berenice#4758
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arsema? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Arsema and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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