Ezmeralda
Feminine · “emerald”
Esmeralda is the Spanish word for an emerald, and the stone's name traveled from Sanskrit through Greek, Latin and Arabic before it reached Spain. The girl who made it a name is Victor Hugo's — the dancer in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, published in 1831. Ezmeralda writes the s as a z, and its peak is 2017.
How old is the name Ezmeralda?
Ezmeralda first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. The typical Ezmeralda is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Ezmeralda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ezmeralda most popular?
Ezmeralda peaked in 2017, reaching #4695 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 1,421 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From marakata to Ezmeralda
The story of Ezmeralda
Hugo's novel gave its Roma dancer the name Esmeralda, and the book was an enormous international success that made both the character and the cathedral famous; Hugo wrote it partly to campaign for the preservation of Gothic architecture, and it worked. The name entered Spanish, French and English naming from it. American use has been continuous but modest since the nineteenth century, strongest among Spanish-speaking families, and a 1996 animated adaptation gave it a further push. The z spelling is an American respelling and belongs to the last thirty years.
Meaning
emerald
Spanish esmeralda comes from Latin smaragdus, from Greek smaragdos, which was borrowed from a Semitic source and ultimately, most likely, from Sanskrit marakata. So the word crossed four language families before becoming a Spanish name. The initial e is a Spanish addition — Spanish cannot begin a word with s plus a consonant, which is why estudiante and escuela have one too. The derivation is settled.
How the name formed
- marakata
- smaragdos
- esmeralda
- Ezmeralda
Related forms: Esmeralda · Esmeralda · Smeralda
Pronouncing Ezmeralda
ez-meh-RAL-dah
Four syllables, stress on the third. Spanish says the s as an s; the z spelling makes it a z in English, which is the only difference between the two versions. There is no other ambiguity.
Nicknames for Ezmeralda
High
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
- 1989
- Most girls named
- 201729 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4695reached in 2017
- Change vs 2024
- +5.6%19 in 2025, from 18
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.
Ezmeralda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Esmeralda in Spanish — spelling variant
- Esmeralda in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Smeralda in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Ezmeraldas among us
people named Ezmeralda are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Ezmeralda
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ezmeralda
- #6116
- Ezmeralda on the 2025 chart
- #362
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ezmeralda went to 19 girls in 2025, but Esmeralda is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 842, which makes it the 362nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,754 places above the chart.
- Esmeralda823
- Ezmeralda19
About 1 girl in 1,909 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 84,593 for Ezmeralda 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 Charlese test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ezmeralda's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Charlese climbed just as high around 1990, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Charlese's path sketches the road Ezmeralda is walking now.
Ezmeralda 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
Ezmeralda beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ezmeralda in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a single concrete jewel with an extraordinary travel history.
- Esme is a complete and currently fashionable name available as a short form.
- It has a genuine and famous literary bearer.
- It will be corrected to Esmeralda by essentially everyone writing it down.
- Four syllables is long for everyday use, so a short form is effectively required.
- The Hugo character's story ends very badly, which some families weigh.
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What they receive
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Ezmeralda
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ezmeraldas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Ezmeralda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ezmeralda?
- Ezmeralda is one of 2 recorded spellings. Esmeralda is the more common one — 823 births in 2025 against 19 for Ezmeralda.
- How popular is the name Ezmeralda in 2025?
- Ezmeralda ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ezmeralda?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Ezmeralda — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ezmeralda with classmates?
- Ezmeralda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ezmeralda
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Harvey#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Alden#6116 · Jeanna#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ezmeralda? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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