Estill
Masculine
Estill is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,246 boys against 7 girls since 1880.
Estill is a county before it is a name. Appalachian families took given names off the map with a freedom that surprises people who assume American naming always ran the other way, and a Kentucky county named for a settler killed in a border fight supplied this one.
How old is the name Estill?
Estill first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Estill alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 400 people named Estill are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Estill most popular?
Estill peaked in 1883, reaching #892 nationally. See the whole 1883 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Estill
James Estill was a Virginian settler in Kentucky when it was still frontier. In the spring of seventeen eighty-two a party of Wyandot raiders took a woman from his station; he pursued with about twenty-five men and caught them at a creek, where the two sides fought at close range for two hours, evenly matched, until one of his officers took a third of the force to circle behind and either misunderstood the order or lost his nerve. Estill was left short-handed, was killed, and the fight is remembered as a defeat that did not have to happen. The county carries his name, families in it took the name for their sons, and by the time it reaches the birth records it is being given to children of both sexes with no memory of any of this attached.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The surname's origin is not settled. It has been derived from a place, from a Scottish surname and from a form of Estella, and none of those is documented for the American family. What is documented is the family itself, the county named after one of them, and the spread of the name through the region afterwards, which is a different and more reliable kind of history.
Pronouncing Estill
ES-til
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The doubled l keeps the second vowel short and closed, which is what stops the name being read as Estelle with the weight at the back.
Nicknames for Estill
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
- 1883
- Most boys named
- 191541 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #892reached in 1883
- Change vs 1980
- 0.0%5 in 1993, 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.
Estills among us
people named Estill 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
Estill 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, firm and easy to spell once heard, with no silent letters.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- It has a real and locatable American history rather than an invented one.
- The record carries this spelling for girls as well as boys, so it signals nothing on a form.
- It will be heard as Estelle and as Ezekiel, and both are commoner.
- There is no meaning to give a child, only a place and a man.
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Estill
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Estills are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Estill are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Estill in 2025?
- Estill is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Estill with classmates?
- Estill 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 Estill? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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