Esabella
Feminine · “Hebrew "God is my oath”
Esabella is Isabella with the first vowel swapped, and the swap is not random. In Spanish and in much American English the initial vowel of Isabella is unstressed and therefore reduced — it is barely an i at all. Writing it as an e records what the ear actually receives rather than what the traditional spelling prescribes.
How old is the name Esabella?
Esabella first appears in US birth records in 1998 — 27 years ago. The typical Esabella alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 700 people named Esabella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Esabella most popular?
Esabella peaked in 2012, reaching #3523 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 3,315 places below that high. See the whole 2012 chart.
Where it comes from
From Elisheva to Esabella
The story of Esabella
Isabel is one of the great examples of a name losing its head. Elisabet had its first syllable clipped in Provençal, becoming Elisabel and then Isabel; Spain and Portugal treated Isabel and Elisabet as the same name for centuries, and Spanish queens are recorded under both. Italian added back a Latin ending to give Isabella. When Isabella became the most-used girls' name in the United States in the late 2000s, respellings followed immediately — Izabella, Isabela, Esabella — and Esabella peaked in 2012, two years after the parent name's own peak, which is the usual lag for a respelling.
Meaning
Hebrew "God is my oath", by way of Elizabeth
Isabella is the Spanish and Italian development of Elizabeth, from Hebrew Elisheva, "my God is an oath" or "God is my satisfaction". The path runs Elisheva to Elisabet to Old Provençal Elisabel to Isabel, with the front of the name gradually lost. Every member of the family carries the same meaning, and Esabella is a spelling of the last step, not a new name.
How the name formed
- Elisheva
- Elisabet
- Isabel
- Isabella
- Esabella
Related forms: Isabel · Isabella · Izabela · Isabelle · אֱלִישֶׁבַע (Elisheva)
Pronouncing Esabella
ess-uh-BELL-uh
Four syllables with the stress on the third. Identical to Isabella in ordinary speech, because that first vowel is unstressed in both spellings. Only careful, syllable-by-syllable pronunciation separates them.
Nicknames for Esabella
High
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
- 1998
- Most girls named
- 201245 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3523reached in 2012
- Change vs 2024
- −20.0%16 in 2025, from 20
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.
Esabella in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Isabel in Spanish — related form
- Isabella in Italian — same name
- Izabela in Polish — spelling variant
- Isabelle in French — related form
- אֱלִישֶׁבַע (Elisheva) in Hebrew — related form
Esabellas among us
people named Esabella are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Esabella
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Esabella
- #6838
- Esabella on the 2025 chart
- #933
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Esabella went to 16 girls in 2025, but Ezabella is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 27, which makes it the 933rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,905 places above the chart.
- Esabella16
- Ezabella11
About 1 girl in 59,528 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,454 for Esabella 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 Dandra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Esabella's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dandra climbed just as high around 1990, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dandra's path sketches the road Esabella is walking now.
Esabella 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
Esabella beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Esabella in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It inherits one of the best-documented etymologies in European naming.
- Bella and Ella are both fully established short forms requiring no explanation.
- It sounds identical to a top-ten name while being uncommon on paper.
- It will be corrected to Isabella constantly, in person and by software.
- The e spelling loses the visual connection to Isabel that many families choose the name for.
- The name is long — nine letters, four syllables — before any nickname.
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What they receive
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Esabella
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Esabellas 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 Esabella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Esabella?
- Esabella is the most-used spelling in US records — 16 of the 27 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Ezabella.
- How popular is the name Esabella in 2025?
- Esabella ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Esabella?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Esabella — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Esabella with classmates?
- Esabella will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Esabella
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Esabella? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Esabella and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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