Esmae
Feminine · Old French roots · “esteemed”
Esmae is one spelling of a name that has been in the record since medieval France, where esmé meant esteemed or loved. It traveled to Scotland as a man's name, came back to English as a woman's, and got a second life when J.D. Salinger put it in the title of a short story in the 1950s. This spelling settles the pronunciation on the page — the -mae ending tells everyone how to say it.
How old is the name Esmae?
Esmae first appears in US birth records in 2008 — 17 years ago. The typical Esmae is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,500 people named Esmae are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Esmae most popular?
Esmae peaked in 2022, reaching #1367 nationally. Today it ranks #1443, 76 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Where it comes from
From esmé (Old French, 'esteemed') to Esmae
The story of Esmae
The name begins as an Old French word, esmé — esteemed, held dear — and enters the naming record through French aristocratic families. It reached Scotland in the sixteenth century as a man's name, carried by the Stuart line through French connections, and stayed masculine there for generations before drifting to girls in English use. The modern feminine revival owes a good deal to J.D. Salinger's story 'For Esmé — with Love and Squalor', published in the early 1950s, whose Esmé is a young English girl. Esmae is a recent respelling that drops the French accent and spells the second syllable the way English speakers already know it from Mae.
Meaning
esteemed, loved
The root is Old French esmé, the past participle of esmer, 'to esteem' (from Latin aestimare). Esmae is often confused with two unrelated names: Spanish Esmeralda, 'emerald', and Arabic Asma. Neither is the source.
How the name formed
- esméOld French, 'esteemed'
- Esmé
- Esme
- Esmae
Related forms: Esmé · Esme · Esmée · Esmay · Esmee
Pronouncing Esmae
EZ-may
Two syllables, stress on the first. The -ae ending points clearly to 'may', which is the practical advantage of this spelling: plain Esme is regularly read as EZ-mee. Some families do stress the second syllable, ez-MAY.
Nicknames for Esmae
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
- 2008
- Most girls named
- 2022170 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1367reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- +52.0%149 in 2025, from 98
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.
Esmae in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Esmé in French — same name
- Esme in English — spelling variant
- Esmée in Dutch — spelling variant
- Esmay in Dutch — spelling variant
- Esmee in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Michigan, Texas.
Esmaes among us
people named Esmae are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 10,787 born in 2025 was named Esmae
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Esmae
- #1443
- Esmae on the 2025 chart
- #769
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Esmae went to 149 girls in 2025, but Ezmae is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 191, which makes it the 769th most-given girls’ name of the year — 674 places above the chart.
- Esmae149
- Ezmae42
About 1 girl in 8,415 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 10,787 for Esmae 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 Jovan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Esmae's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jovan climbed just as high around 1981, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jovan's path sketches the road Esmae is walking now.
Esmae 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 Esmae is headed
Esmae 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.
Esmae beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Esmae in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling makes the pronunciation self-evident in a way that Esme does not, which cuts down on corrections.
- A documented line back to medieval French, so it is a genuinely old name rather than a recent coinage.
- Recognizable across several languages — Esmé in French, Esmée and Esmay in Dutch — so it travels without translation.
- Ready-made short forms: Mae, Essie, Es, all of them in real use.
- This is the less common of several spellings. Expect people to default to Esme or Esmée, and expect to spell it out fairly often.
- The name is still overwhelmingly carried by young children in the US, so an adult Esmae is rare here. That will change as this group grows up, but it is worth knowing.
- Some readers will assume it is short for Esmeralda, or connect it to Asma. Neither is the actual root, and correcting it becomes a small routine.
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Esmae
Feminine · Old French roots · #1443 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Esmaes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Esmae are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Esmae?
- Esmae is the most-used spelling in US records — 149 of the 191 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Ezmae.
- How popular is the name Esmae in 2025?
- Esmae ranks #1443 among US girl names in 2025, with 149 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Esmae?
- About 1 in every 10,787 US girls born in 2025 was named Esmae — 149 in all.
- Will my child share the name Esmae with classmates?
- Esmae will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Esmae
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lesly#1443 · Annette#1443 · Elysia#1443 · Journei#1443 · Evalynn#1443 · Monserrat#1443 · Rayleigh#1443 · Linnea#1443
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Esmae? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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