Essie
Masculine · “Star”
Essie is given to girls far more often — 39,682 girls against 1,212 boys since 1880. See Essie as a girl 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 first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Essie alive today was born around 1926, making them about 99 years old. About 200 people named Essie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Essie most popular?
Essie peaked in 1894, reaching #464 nationally. See the whole 1894 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
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 192037 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #464reached in 1894
- Change vs 1982
- 0.0%5 in 1989, from 5
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
Essies among us
people named Essie are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Essie sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
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.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Essie
Masculine
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 200 people named Essie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Essie in 2025?
- Essie is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Essie with classmates?
- Essie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More E names
The most-given names starting with E, all years combined.
Edward#224 · Eric#273 · Ethan#24 · Eugene#943 · Elijah#7 · Ernest#1038 · Earl#2230 · Evan#153
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Essie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Essie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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