Estee
Feminine · “star”
Estee is given to both — 830 girls and 43 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Estee Lauder invented her own name. She was born Josephine Esther Mentzer in Queens, took Esther as her working name, respelled it with a French accent as Estee, and built one of the largest cosmetics companies in the world on it.
How old is the name Estee?
Estee first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Estee alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 800 people named Estee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Estee most popular?
Estee peaked in 1976, reaching #3188 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 3,358 places below that high. See the whole 1976 chart.
Where it comes from
From Esther to Estee
The story of Estee
Josephine Esther Mentzer, born in 1908 to Hungarian and Czech immigrant parents, began selling skin creams made by her uncle and founded her company in 1946. The name she used, Estee, is Esther reshaped: an accent added, the h dropped, and the ending given a French look that the original does not have. It is one of the clearest cases in twentieth-century American naming of a person constructing a name and then making it famous enough that others used it. The given name appears in United States records from the 1960s and reaches its best year in 1976, at the height of the company's expansion.
Meaningscholars disagree
star, or a name of the goddess Ishtar
Esther, the name behind this one, is generally connected either to Persian setareh, a star, or to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the biblical Esther being identified with a Hebrew name Hadassah. Neither is settled. Estee is a twentieth-century respelling with a French look and carries whatever meaning Esther does.
How the name formed
- Esther
- Estee
Related forms: Ester · Esther · Ester
Pronouncing Estee
ES-tay
Two syllables with the stress on the first and a long a at the end. The French-looking accent on the original spelling marks that final vowel; without it English readers try ES-tee.
Nicknames for Estee
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
- 1917
- Most girls named
- 198125 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3188reached in 1976
- Change vs 2024
- −15.0%17 in 2025, from 20
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.
Estee 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: Florida, New York.
Estees among us
people named Estee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Estee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Estee
- #6546
- Estee on the 2025 chart
- #929
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Estee went to 17 girls in 2025, but Este is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 31, which makes it the 929th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,617 places above the chart.
- Estee17
- Este14
About 1 girl in 51,847 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,545 for Estee 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 Lylian test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Estee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lylian climbed just as high around 1914, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lylian's path sketches the road Estee is walking now.
Estee 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
Estee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Estee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented twentieth-century invention with a known inventor.
- Descends from Esther, one of the oldest women's names in the biblical stock.
- Short, crisp and easy to spell once heard.
- The cosmetics company is the first association for nearly everyone.
- Without the accent the final vowel is ambiguous.
- Esther is the standard form and will be assumed by anyone who knows it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Estee
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Estees 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 Estee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Estee?
- Estee is the most-used spelling in US records — 17 of the 31 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Este.
- How popular is the name Estee in 2025?
- Estee ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Estee?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Estee — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Estee with classmates?
- Estee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Estee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Estee? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Estee and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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