Essa
Essa is given to both girls and boys: 10 girls and 51 boys were given it in 2025 (#9,653 among girls’ names and #2,581 among boys’, #4,912 among all names counting both); 986 Americans have been recorded with it since 1885 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Essa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Essa?
#2,581 among boys’ names, 2025
Essa rose from #3,387 in 2015 to #2,581 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 17.2 to 29.9 per million.
71 babies in 2022, the peak
Essa peaked in 2022, when 71 babies were given it (57 boys, #2,448 among boys’ names). The 61 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 86% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 10 | #9,653 | 51 | #2,581 |
| 2024 | 7 | #12,574 | 39 | #3,125 |
| 2023 | 15 | #7,367 | 48 | #2,707 |
| 2022 | 14 | #7,752 | 57 | #2,448 |
| 2021 | 13 | #8,167 | 35 | #3,319 |
| 2020 | 11 | #9,137 | 34 | #3,291 |
| 2019 | 10 | #9,967 | 54 | #2,468 |
| 2018 | 12 | #8,783 | 35 | #3,259 |
| 2017 | 15 | #7,571 | 45 | #2,725 |
| 2016 | under 5 | 35 | #3,246 |
Every recorded year (52)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 7 | #13,439 | 33 | #3,387 |
| 2014 | under 5 | 21 | #4,587 | |
| 2013 | 5 | #17,385 | 24 | #4,093 |
| 2012 | 10 | #10,665 | 21 | #4,582 |
| 2011 | under 5 | 22 | #4,404 | |
| 2010 | under 5 | 15 | #5,818 | |
| 2009 | under 5 | 23 | #4,328 | |
| 2008 | 5 | #18,383 | 15 | #5,855 |
| 2007 | under 5 | 6 | #11,366 | |
| 2006 | under 5 | 8 | #8,960 | |
| 2005 | under 5 | 8 | #8,521 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 15 | #5,327 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 11 | #6,383 | |
| 2002 | under 5 | 11 | #6,210 | |
| 2001 | under 5 | 9 | #7,085 | |
| 2000 | under 5 | 8 | #7,662 | |
| 1999 | under 5 | 8 | #7,364 | |
| 1998 | under 5 | 12 | #5,238 | |
| 1997 | under 5 | 7 | #7,533 | |
| 1994 | under 5 | 8 | #6,542 | |
| 1993 | under 5 | 5 | #9,164 | |
| 1991 | under 5 | 7 | #6,739 | |
| 1990 | under 5 | 10 | #5,111 | |
| 1989 | under 5 | 9 | #5,301 | |
| 1983 | under 5 | 5 | #6,564 | |
| 1978 | under 5 | 6 | #5,286 | |
| 1947 | 5 | #5,561 | under 5 | |
| 1928 | 5 | #4,950 | under 5 | |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,458 | under 5 | |
| 1926 | 5 | #5,088 | under 5 | |
| 1925 | 7 | #4,149 | under 5 | |
| 1923 | 5 | #5,194 | under 5 | |
| 1922 | 5 | #5,250 | under 5 | |
| 1920 | 5 | #5,222 | under 5 | |
| 1919 | 5 | #5,036 | under 5 | |
| 1917 | 8 | #3,449 | under 5 | |
| 1912 | 8 | #2,214 | under 5 | |
| 1900 | 5 | #2,023 | under 5 | |
| 1896 | 6 | #1,473 | under 5 | |
| 1891 | 6 | #1,251 | under 5 | |
| 1888 | 5 | #1,349 | under 5 | |
| 1885 | 6 | #962 | 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 Essa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 986 Americans recorded as Essa, 23% are girls and 77% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Essa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Essa, and how old are they?
An estimated 888 Americans named Essa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (90% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 4 and 15. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 910 people named Essa (184 women and girls, 726 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 573 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 9,175 babies since 1880, Essa is the third most given (11% of them). In 2025 it was given to 61 of their 413 babies (15%), again the third 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 Essa
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
| Name | Recorded | 1880-2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Elon | 3,633 |
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 Essa and names like it
- Compare Essa and EsauBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sEssa peaked in 2022.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Essa since 1910.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Essa.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Essa alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with EMost given first.