Esa
Masculine · “the Lord is salvation”
Esa is given to both — 659 boys and 109 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Isa is Jesus in Arabic, and the Finnish Esa is a form of Esaias — Isaiah — two unrelated names at one spelling.
How old is the name Esa?
Esa first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. The typical Esa is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Esa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Esa most popular?
Esa peaked in 2025, reaching #2539 nationally. Today it ranks #2539, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yeshua to Esa
The story of Esa
Isa is the Qur'anic name of Jesus, and how it arrived in that form from the Hebrew Yeshua has been debated for centuries. Finnish separately shortens Esaias — Isaiah — to Esa, one of the country's common names. Both routes reach American records, where the name is in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
the Lord is salvation
Two routes. The Arabic Isa, the Qur'anic name of Jesus, itself from the Hebrew Yeshua through Syriac. And the Finnish Esa, a short form of Esaias, from Isaiah, 'the Lord is salvation'. Both trace to Hebrew salvation roots but by different names.
How the name formed
- Yeshua
- Isa
- Esa
Related forms: عيسى · Esa · Isa
Pronouncing Esa
EH-sah
Two syllables, stress on the first. Arabic Isa is EE-sah.
Nicknames for Esa
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
- 1989
- Most boys named
- 202552 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2539reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +23.8%52 in 2025, from 42
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.
Esa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- عيسى in Arabic — related form
- Esa in Finnish — same name
- Isa in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, New York, California.
Esas among us
people named Esa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 32,848 born in 2025 was named Esa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Esa
- #2539
- Esa on the 2025 chart
- #791
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Esa went to 52 boys in 2025, but Eesa is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 137, which makes it the 791st most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,748 places above the chart.
- Eesa85
- Esa52
About 1 boy in 12,468 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 32,848 for Esa itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Toren test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Esa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Toren climbed just as high around 1963, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Toren's path sketches the road Esa is walking now.
Esa 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 Esa is headed
Esa should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Esa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Esa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That the Qur'anic form of Jesus's name is still debated is a first-rate fact.
- Both routes trace to Hebrew words for salvation.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- The Arabic and Finnish names are unrelated.
- Isa and Esa are both in circulation and said differently.
- It is very short and can be swallowed by a long surname.
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What they receive
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Esa
Masculine · #2539 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Esas 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 Esa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Esa?
- Esa is one of 2 recorded spellings. Eesa is the more common one — 85 births in 2025 against 52 for Esa.
- How popular is the name Esa in 2025?
- Esa ranks #2539 among US boy names in 2025, with 52 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Esa?
- About 1 in every 32,848 US boys born in 2025 was named Esa — 52 in all.
- Will my child share the name Esa with classmates?
- Esa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Esa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Yanis#2539 · Ebenezer#2539 · Mazen#2539 · Ziyad#2539 · Mercer#2539 · Ramy#2539 · Konnor#2539 · Luigi#2539
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Esa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Esa and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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