Esme
Esme was given to 1,032 girls in 2025, #298 among girls’ names; 10,930 Americans have been recorded with it since 1913 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 10,800 Americans named Esme and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 11.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Esme by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Esme mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Esme is “a female given name from French.”
Also “a male given name from French.”
Anglicized spelling of French Esmé.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Esme?
#298 among girls’ names, 2025
Esme rose from #681 in 2015 to #298 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.23 to 0.64 per 1,000.
1,053 babies in 2022, the peak
Esme peaked in 2022, when 1,053 girls were given it, #304 among girls’ names. The 1,032 births of 2025 are 98% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,032 | #298 | 0.64 |
| 2024 | 908 | #343 | 0.56 |
| 2023 | 950 | #325 | 0.59 |
| 2022 | 1,053 | #304 | 0.64 |
| 2021 | 828 | #376 | 0.50 |
| 2020 | 788 | #395 | 0.49 |
| 2019 | 745 | #426 | 0.44 |
| 2018 | 565 | #548 | 0.33 |
| 2017 | 513 | #585 | 0.30 |
| 2016 | 431 | #682 | 0.24 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 419 | #681 | 0.23 |
| 2014 | 342 | #812 | 0.19 |
| 2013 | 274 | #926 | 0.16 |
| 2012 | 260 | #975 | 0.15 |
| 2011 | 263 | #977 | 0.15 |
| 2010 | 280 | #927 | 0.16 |
| 2009 | 240 | #1,063 | 0.13 |
| 2008 | 154 | #1,512 | 0.08 |
| 2007 | 106 | #1,943 | 0.06 |
| 2006 | 105 | #1,922 | 0.06 |
| 2005 | 68 | #2,531 | 0.04 |
| 2004 | 75 | #2,311 | 0.04 |
| 2003 | 76 | #2,243 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 67 | #2,389 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 42 | #3,264 | 0.02 |
| 2000 | 35 | #3,679 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 45 | #2,948 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 29 | #3,950 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 22 | #4,708 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 19 | #5,123 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 18 | #5,277 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 19 | #5,085 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 15 | #6,048 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 7 | #10,837 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 8 | #9,596 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 7 | #10,548 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 5 | #13,000 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 8 | #8,633 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 8 | #8,222 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 9 | #7,291 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 5 | #11,171 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 5 | #10,906 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 6 | #9,376 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 8 | #7,688 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 16 | #4,594 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 5 | #10,861 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 6 | #8,456 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 6 | #8,300 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #8,711 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 5 | #6,855 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 5 | #5,928 | under 0.01 |
| 1939 | 5 | #4,447 | under 0.01 |
| 1913 | 5 | #3,341 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Esme a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Esme has been given almost only to girls: 10 boys in 53 years of records.
Girls and boys named Esme: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Esme, and how old are they?
10,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 10,930 Americans ever recorded as Esme. The median Esme alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 11.
The 2020 Census counted 5,818 people named Esme (5,778 women and girls, 40 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,517 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 2 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 8 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 21 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 159 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,850 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 8,810 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Esme born?
The states with the most babies named Esme are California, New York and Texas, with 28% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 112 | #290 | 1.0× |
| New York | 86 | #191 | 1.3× |
| Texas | 81 | #417 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 50 | #370 | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 41 | #259 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 37 | #296 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 37 | #299 | 0.8× |
| Washington | 35 | #208 | 1.5× |
| Michigan | 35 | #260 | 0.9× |
| Massachusetts | 33 | #169 | 1.5× |
Where Esme is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Esme is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1913 it was given 2.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Esme with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 14,820 babies since 1880, Esme is the most given (74% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,032 of their 1,303 babies (79%), again the most given.
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 Esme
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 Esme and names like it
- Compare Esme and EsmaeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sEsme peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Esme since 1910.
- French namesWiktionary’s origin for Esme: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Esme.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Esme alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with EMost given first.