Ester
Masculine · “A star”
Ester is given to both — 891 boys and 16,265 girls since 1880. See Ester as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Ester is the spelling most of Europe uses, without the h that English inserted — and the h was never pronounced in any language. The book the name comes from exists in two versions that do not agree about what is in it.
How old is the name Ester?
Ester first appears in US birth records in 1888 — 137 years ago. The typical Ester alive today was born around 1928, making them about 97 years old. About 200 people named Ester are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ester most popular?
Ester peaked in 1910, reaching #677 nationally. See the whole 1910 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ester to Ester
The story of Ester
The Hebrew version of the book is famously secular: no prayers, no miracles, no mention of God anywhere in it. The Greek version, translated a century or two later, is not — it contains long prayers, a dream, an explanation of the dream, and a scene at court written in a completely different register, amounting to six substantial passages that the Hebrew does not have. Catholic and Orthodox Bibles print them; Protestant ones either omit them or put them in a separate section. So a reader's sense of what kind of book it is depends entirely on which edition they picked up: a court intrigue with no religion in it, or a devotional text with prayers at the crisis.
Meaningscholars disagree
A star, or the goddess Ishtar — the two readings compete
Two readings compete. One connects the name to the Persian word for a star; the other, better supported, takes it from the Babylonian goddess Ishtar — which would make it one of a pair, since the man beside her in the story carries a name built on another Babylonian god. Neither is settled.
How the name formed
- Ester
- Esther
Related forms: Ester · Ester · Ester · Esther
Pronouncing Ester
ES-ter
Two syllables, stress at the front. Spanish and Italian say it the same way; the English h in the longer spelling has never been sounded.
Nicknames for Ester
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
- 1888
- Most boys named
- 191928 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #677reached in 1910
- Change vs 1980
- +20.0%6 in 1985, 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.
Ester in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ester in Spanish — same name
- Ester in Italian — same name
- Ester in Portuguese — same name
- Esther in Hebrew — same name
Esters among us
people named Ester 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
Ester 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 spelled this way across most of Europe and read correctly everywhere.
- It carries a story that three religious traditions know.
- The short forms are numerous and quite different from each other.
- English speakers will add the h back on every form she fills in.
- The spelling is recorded for both sexes, though it belongs overwhelmingly to the girls.
- The meaning is genuinely unsettled between a star and a goddess.
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Ester
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Esters 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 Ester are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ester in 2025?
- Ester is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Ester with classmates?
- Ester 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 Ester? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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