Esa
Esa is given to both girls and boys: 7 girls and 52 boys were given it in 2025 (#12,295 among girls’ names and #2,546 among boys’, #5,035 among all names counting both); 768 Americans have been recorded with it since 1967 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Esa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Esa mean?
Wiktionary, Finnish section
Esa is “a male given name”
Medieval vernacular form of Esaias, the old biblical equivalent of English Isaiah. It has also been recorded as a diminutive of Esko and Esau.
/ˈesɑ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Finnish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Esa?
#2,546 among boys’ names, 2025
Esa rose from #4,592 in 2015 to #2,546 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 11.0 to 30.4 per million.
59 babies in 2025, the peak
Esa peaked in 2025, when 59 babies were given it (52 boys, #2,546 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 42 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #12,295 | 52 | #2,546 |
| 2024 | 8 | #11,416 | 42 | #2,971 |
| 2023 | 7 | #12,539 | 51 | #2,589 |
| 2022 | 8 | #11,529 | 34 | #3,427 |
| 2021 | 8 | #11,433 | 48 | #2,664 |
| 2020 | 6 | #13,965 | 46 | #2,700 |
| 2019 | 8 | #11,686 | 40 | #3,007 |
| 2018 | 6 | #14,347 | 34 | #3,314 |
| 2017 | under 5 | 33 | #3,398 | |
| 2016 | 5 | #17,060 | 37 | #3,125 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | under 5 | 21 | #4,592 | |
| 2014 | 6 | #15,173 | 29 | #3,640 |
| 2013 | under 5 | 28 | #3,686 | |
| 2012 | 7 | #13,940 | 18 | #5,095 |
| 2011 | under 5 | 13 | #6,342 | |
| 2010 | under 5 | 19 | #4,893 | |
| 2009 | under 5 | 13 | #6,544 | |
| 2008 | under 5 | 10 | #7,868 | |
| 2007 | under 5 | 13 | #6,368 | |
| 2006 | 5 | #18,009 | 9 | #8,202 |
| 2005 | under 5 | 11 | #6,770 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 8 | #8,064 | |
| 2002 | 5 | #16,250 | 6 | #9,743 |
| 2001 | under 5 | 8 | #7,760 | |
| 2000 | under 5 | 9 | #6,999 | |
| 1997 | under 5 | 7 | #7,531 | |
| 1995 | under 5 | 8 | #6,570 | |
| 1992 | under 5 | 5 | #8,838 | |
| 1989 | under 5 | 7 | #6,427 | |
| 1981 | 5 | #10,891 | under 5 | |
| 1974 | 7 | #7,120 | under 5 | |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,338 | under 5 | |
| 1967 | 6 | #6,253 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Esa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 768 Americans recorded as Esa, 14% are girls and 86% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Esa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Esa, and how old are they?
An estimated 759 Americans named Esa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 8 years old and half are between 4 and 14. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 740 people named Esa (209 women and girls, 531 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 459 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 9,161 babies since 1880, Esa is the fifth most given (8.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 59 of their 402 babies (15%), the fourth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Esa
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Esa and names like it
- Compare Esa and EsauBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sEsa peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Esa since 1910.
- Finnish namesWiktionary’s origin for Esa: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Esa.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Esa alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with EMost given first.