Estell
Feminine · “star”
Estell is given to both — 4,232 girls and 551 boys since 1880. See Estell as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Estell is Estelle with the last letter gone: the same three sounds, one less silent vowel on the page. Behind it stands the Latin word for a star, carried into English through French, and the spelling was already on American certificates when the government first began counting names at all.
How old is the name Estell?
Estell was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Estell alive today was born around 1920, making them about 105 years old. About 600 people named Estell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Estell most popular?
Estell peaked in 1910, reaching #385 nationally. See the whole 1910 chart.
Where it comes from
From stella to Estell
The story of Estell
Estelle came into English from France, where it had been in use since the Middle Ages and where a legendary martyr of the name was venerated in the southwest. English speakers took it up in the nineteenth century, and Charles Dickens gave a version of it, Estella, to the beautiful and deliberately cold ward of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations in 1861. American parents met the name in both spellings, and the shorter Estell is in the record from the beginning rather than arriving later as a variant.
Meaning
star
Latin stella passed into Old French as estele and estoile, and the name follows the French line rather than the Latin one. The e at the front is the French habit of propping up a word that would otherwise begin with st.
How the name formed
- stella
- estele
- Estelle
- Estell
Related forms: Estelle · Estela · Estella · Stella · Estrella
Pronouncing Estell
es-TEL
Two syllables with the weight at the back. The dropped e changes nothing about how the name is said, which is why the two spellings are so easily confused.
Nicknames for Estell
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
- 1920155 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #385reached in 1910
- Change vs 1979
- −54.5%5 in 1983, from 11
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.
Estell in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Estelle in French — same name
- Estela in Spanish — spelling variant
- Estella in Italian — spelling variant
- Stella in Latin — related form
- Estrella in Spanish — related form
Estells among us
people named Estell 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
Estell 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
- It is a letter shorter than Estelle without changing a single sound.
- The star behind it is settled, short and easy to explain to a child.
- It has an unbroken run in American records reaching back to the first year they were kept.
- Essie and Stell are ready-made short forms that nobody has to invent.
- Almost everyone will hear Estelle and write the final e back on; expect to spell it aloud for life.
- The spelling is recorded for boys as well as girls in the United States, so on paper it does not settle which child a stranger is meeting.
- It reads as a name from an older generation, which some parents want and others do not.
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What they receive
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Estell
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Estells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Estell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Estell in 2025?
- Estell is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Estell with classmates?
- Estell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More E names
The most-given names starting with E, all years combined.
Elizabeth#17 · Emily#34 · Emma#3 · Evelyn#8 · Ella#29 · Eleanor#12 · Erin#833 · Edna#2458
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Estell? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Estell and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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