Hester
Masculine · “a form of Esther”
Hester is given to both — 537 boys and 14,227 girls since 1880. See Hester as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Hester is the English form of Esther, a name of queens and heroines, carried in American literature by the woman who wore the scarlet letter. It is two syllables, strong and unhurried.
How old is the name Hester?
Hester first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Hester alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Hester are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Hester most popular?
Hester peaked in 1900, reaching #902 nationally. See the whole 1900 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Esther to Hester
The story of Hester
In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is condemned by her Puritan town to wear a scarlet A, and she wears it with such dignity that it comes to mean something else entirely. Lady Hester Stanhope, niece of the prime minister William Pitt, left England for the Levant, lived among the Druze in the mountains of Lebanon, and led a dig at Ashkelon guided by a medieval manuscript, one of the first excavations in the Holy Land. The name is recorded for a very few boys, but it is a woman's name everywhere.
Meaningscholars disagree
a form of Esther, often read as star
Hester is a medieval English form of Esther, a Persian name often linked to a word for star, or to the goddess Ishtar; the source is argued.
How the name formed
- Esther
- Hester
Related forms: Ester · Esther · Hester
Pronouncing Hester
HES-ter
Two syllables, stressed on the first.
Nicknames for Hester
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
- 1893
- Most boys named
- 191624 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #902reached in 1900
- Change vs 1955
- −16.7%5 in 1970, from 6
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.
Hester in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ester in Hebrew — related form
- Esther in English — related form
- Hester in Dutch — same name
Hesters among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Hester are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Hester 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 carries a long literary and historical tradition.
- Hettie and Hessie give warm short forms.
- It is almost never given now, so it stands out.
- Many will think first of The Scarlet Letter.
- It sounds old-fashioned to many ears.
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Hester
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Hesters are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Hester are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Hester in 2025?
- Hester is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Hester with classmates?
- Hester will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More H names
The most-given names starting with H, all years combined.
Henry#5 · Harold#991 · Harry#775 · Howard#1002 · Hunter#130 · Herbert#2641 · Herman#2363 · Harvey#251
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hester? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hester and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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