Esmeray
Feminine · “dark moon”
Esmeray is a Turkish name built from two everyday Turkish words, which means it can be read at sight by anyone who speaks the language: esmer, dusky or dark-complexioned, and ay, moon. In English it arrives already carrying two familiar short forms inside it — Esme at the front, Ray at the end — so it is a long name that never has to stay long.
How old is the name Esmeray?
Esmeray first appears in US birth records in 2018 — 7 years ago. Esmeray is overwhelmingly a brand-new baby name right now — most Esmerays are still in diapers. About 400 people named Esmeray are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Esmeray most popular?
Esmeray peaked in 2025, reaching #1388 nationally. Today it ranks #1388, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Esmeray appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From esmer (Turkish: dusky, dark-complexioned) to Esmeray
The story of Esmeray
Esmeray belongs to a large family of modern Turkish given names assembled from plain Turkish words, and specifically to the cluster built on ay, moon — the same element behind Ayla, Aysel, Aynur and Aysu. That habit of coining transparent compound names grew strongly in Turkey through the twentieth century, alongside the wider push toward Turkish vocabulary in personal naming. Esmeray is used in Turkey as a woman's name and reached American records only recently, where its climb sits alongside the broader English-speaking taste for Esme and Esmeralda. The overlap is a matter of sound: Esmeray is not related to Esmeralda, which comes through Spanish from the word for emerald.
Meaning
dark moon; dusky moon
Turkish esmer (dark, dusky, brown-complexioned) plus ay (moon). The two elements are ordinary modern Turkish words, so the reading is transparent rather than reconstructed.
How the name formed
- esmerTurkish: dusky, dark-complexioned
- ayTurkish: moon
- Esmeray
Related forms: Esmeray
Pronouncing Esmeray
ES-meh-RYE
In Turkish the final -ay rhymes with 'eye', and the stress falls at the end. Many American families say EZ-muh-ray instead, rhyming the ending with 'day'. Both are in real use; whichever you choose, expect to say it twice.
Nicknames for Esmeray
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
- 2018
- Most girls named
- 2025157 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1388reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +175.4%157 in 2025, from 57
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.
Esmeray in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Esmeray in Turkish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Esmerays among us
people named Esmeray are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 10,237 born in 2025 was named Esmeray
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 Marcell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Esmeray's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marcell climbed just as high around 1923, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marcell's path sketches the road Esmeray is walking now.
Esmeray is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Esmeray is headed
Esmeray is on a steep climb — if the curve holds, 2030 could see around 90% more babies given the name than today. 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.
Esmeray beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Esmeray in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two ready-made short forms live inside it — Esme and Ray — both already familiar in English, so the name works long or short.
- The meaning is not reconstructed guesswork: both halves are ordinary modern Turkish words still in daily use.
- Its sound sits close to Esme and Esmeralda, names most people already know, which makes it easier to read at first glance than its rarity suggests.
- In active use in Turkey as well as the United States, so it travels with a home base rather than as a one-country coinage.
- Two pronunciations are genuinely competing — the Turkish ending that rhymes with 'eye', and the anglicized one that rhymes with 'day'. Decide early which one you will correct people toward, because both will be offered to you.
- Expect spelling repairs for life: Esmerey, Esmarae, and simply Esmeralda are all likely mishearings.
- In the United States this is very new and very rare, so there are almost no adults carrying it here to make it feel familiar to teachers, doctors and relatives. A child is likely to be the only one anywhere in her school.
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What they receive
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Esmeray
Feminine · #1388 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Esmerays are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Esmeray are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Esmeray in 2025?
- Esmeray ranks #1388 among US girl names in 2025, with 157 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Esmeray?
- About 1 in every 10,237 US girls born in 2025 was named Esmeray — 157 in all.
- Will my child share the name Esmeray with classmates?
- Esmeray will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Esmeray
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Noel#1388 · Jael#1388 · Jersey#1388 · Austyn#1388 · Delainey#1388 · Gaia#1388 · Alyson#1388 · True#1382
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Esmeray? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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