Essie
Feminine · “Star”
Essie is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 39,682 girls against 1,212 boys since 1880. See Essie as a boy name
The book behind this name never mentions God. Not once, in ten chapters: no prayer that is answered on the page, no miracle, no divine speech. It is a story about a woman in a foreign court who gets a decree reversed by timing, and the argument about whether it belonged in the Bible went on for centuries because of that silence.
How old is the name Essie?
Essie was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Essie alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. About 8,100 people named Essie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Essie most popular?
Essie peaked in 1896, reaching #126 nationally. Today it ranks #3296, 3,170 places below that high. See the whole 1896 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Esther to Essie
The story of Essie
The festival that reads the book aloud is the one Jewish holiday with an instruction to drink. The Talmud says a person should drink on Purim until they cannot tell the difference between blessed be Mordechai and cursed be Haman, which later authorities spent a great deal of energy qualifying and which is still taken seriously enough to shape the day. There is shouting and rattling whenever the villain's name is read, costumes, parody, and a tradition of mock sermons and satirical newsletters; it is the carnival of the calendar. A book with no God in it is read once a year in an atmosphere designed to make solemnity impossible, and the two facts are probably related.
Meaningscholars disagree
Star
Esther is usually connected to the Persian or Babylonian word behind the goddess Ishtar and the word for a star, and the text also gives the woman a Hebrew name, Hadassah, meaning a myrtle. Both are in the book. Which is the real one and which the court name is part of the story rather than a problem with it.
How the name formed
- Esther
- Essie
Related forms: Ester · Esther · Ester
Pronouncing Essie
ESS-ee
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The doubled s keeps it unvoiced; a single s between vowels would be read as a z and produce a different name.
Nicknames for Essie
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19211,032 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #126reached in 1896
- Change vs 2022
- −6.0%47 in 2025, from 50
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.
Essie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ester in Hebrew — related form
- Esther in French — related form
- Ester in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, North Carolina.
Essies among us
people named Essie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 34,197 born in 2025 was named Essie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Essie 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 Essie is headed
Essie looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 19% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Essie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Essie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, warm and among the easiest names in English for a small child to say.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- A long formal name sits behind it if one is wanted later.
- The record carries it for boys as well as girls, so it signals nothing on a form.
- It is a pet form on a certificate and leaves nothing more formal underneath.
- It is strongly dated to the late nineteenth century in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Essie
Feminine · #3296 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Essies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,100 people named Essie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Essie in 2025?
- Essie ranks #3296 among US girl names in 2025, with 47 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Essie?
- About 1 in every 34,197 US girls born in 2025 was named Essie — 47 in all.
- Will my child share the name Essie with classmates?
- Essie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Essie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Neva#3296 · Aleyda#3296 · Kaylor#3296 · Nalia#3296 · Anyeli#3296 · Izabel#3296 · Esmee#3296 · Rhoda#3296
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Essie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Essie and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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