Essa
Masculine · “the Lord is salvation”
Essa is given to both — 760 boys and 226 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Essa is a spelling of Isa — Jesus in Arabic — and how the Qur'anic form arrived from the Hebrew is still debated.
How old is the name Essa?
Essa first appears in US birth records in 1978 — 47 years ago. The typical Essa is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 800 people named Essa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Essa most popular?
Essa peaked in 2022, reaching #2438 nationally. Today it ranks #2572, 134 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yeshua to Essa
The story of Essa
Isa is the Qur'anic name of Jesus, and the puzzle is why it is Isa rather than Yasu, which is what the Hebrew and Syriac would predict; proposals include a Syriac dialect form and a deliberate reshaping. Essa is a common Gulf and South Asian spelling. It appears in American records in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
the Lord is salvation
From the Arabic Isa, the Qur'anic name of Jesus, ultimately from the Hebrew Yeshua through Syriac — though the exact route is debated, since the expected Arabic form would be Yasu. The Hebrew behind it is settled; the Arabic transformation is not.
How the name formed
- Yeshua
- Isa
- Essa
Related forms: عيسى · Isa · İsa
Pronouncing Essa
EE-sah
Two syllables, stress on the first. Arabic gives the initial ayin a throat sound English lacks.
Nicknames for Essa
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
- 1978
- Most boys named
- 202257 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2438reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- +30.8%51 in 2025, from 39
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.
Essa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- عيسى in Arabic — transliteration
- Isa in English — spelling variant
- İsa in Turkish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Texas, California.
Essas among us
people named Essa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 33,492 born in 2025 was named Essa
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 Zan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Essa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Zan climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Zan's path sketches the road Essa is walking now.
Essa 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 Essa is headed
Essa 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.
Essa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Essa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That the Arabic form is still unexplained is a first-rate puzzle.
- The Lord-is-salvation meaning is transparent.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk in English.
- It is the Qur'anic name of Jesus, which some families will weigh.
- Isa is the commoner spelling.
- The initial consonant is not reproducible in English.
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What they receive
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Essa
Masculine · #2572 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Essas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Essa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Essa in 2025?
- Essa ranks #2572 among US boy names in 2025, with 51 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Essa?
- About 1 in every 33,492 US boys born in 2025 was named Essa — 51 in all.
- Will my child share the name Essa with classmates?
- Essa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Essa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ripp#2572 · Efraim#2572 · Willem#2572 · Duane#2572 · Nikolaos#2572 · Nicolai#2572 · Zair#2572 · Parth#2572
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Essa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Essa and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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