Essence
Essence was given to 199 girls in 2025, #1,165 among girls’ names; 10,761 Americans have been recorded with it since 1973 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 10,600 Americans named Essence and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 15 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Essence by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Essence mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Essence is “a female given name of African-American usage.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Essence?
#1,165 among girls’ names, 2025
Essence rose from #1,465 in 2015 to #1,165 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.09 to 0.12 per 1,000.
565 babies in 1998, the peak
Essence peaked in 1998, when 565 girls were given it, #457 among girls’ names. The 205 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 36% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 199 | #1,165 | 0.12 |
| 2024 | 228 | #1,085 | 0.14 |
| 2023 | 250 | #1,013 | 0.16 |
| 2022 | 256 | #1,015 | 0.16 |
| 2021 | 149 | #1,444 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 186 | #1,228 | 0.12 |
| 2019 | 149 | #1,479 | 0.09 |
| 2018 | 155 | #1,429 | 0.09 |
| 2017 | 148 | #1,498 | 0.09 |
| 2016 | 136 | #1,616 | 0.08 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 157 | #1,465 | 0.09 |
| 2014 | 189 | #1,272 | 0.11 |
| 2013 | 201 | #1,195 | 0.11 |
| 2012 | 225 | #1,099 | 0.13 |
| 2011 | 245 | #1,019 | 0.14 |
| 2010 | 247 | #1,016 | 0.14 |
| 2009 | 263 | #1,006 | 0.14 |
| 2008 | 274 | #979 | 0.14 |
| 2007 | 287 | #944 | 0.15 |
| 2006 | 320 | #838 | 0.17 |
| 2005 | 268 | #928 | 0.15 |
| 2004 | 308 | #814 | 0.17 |
| 2003 | 333 | #750 | 0.18 |
| 2002 | 273 | #846 | 0.15 |
| 2001 | 322 | #741 | 0.18 |
| 2000 | 447 | #583 | 0.25 |
| 1999 | 529 | #492 | 0.30 |
| 1998 | 565 | #457 | 0.32 |
| 1997 | 440 | #542 | 0.25 |
| 1996 | 431 | #543 | 0.25 |
| 1995 | 502 | #490 | 0.29 |
| 1994 | 262 | #775 | 0.15 |
| 1993 | 245 | #816 | 0.14 |
| 1992 | 226 | #875 | 0.12 |
| 1991 | 193 | #972 | 0.10 |
| 1990 | 138 | #1,216 | 0.07 |
| 1989 | 109 | #1,383 | 0.06 |
| 1988 | 102 | #1,385 | 0.06 |
| 1987 | 95 | #1,404 | 0.05 |
| 1986 | 91 | #1,409 | 0.05 |
| 1985 | 67 | #1,714 | 0.04 |
| 1984 | 80 | #1,449 | 0.05 |
| 1983 | 104 | #1,221 | 0.06 |
| 1982 | 72 | #1,610 | 0.04 |
| 1981 | 49 | #2,091 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 47 | #2,163 | 0.03 |
| 1979 | 52 | #1,982 | 0.03 |
| 1978 | 38 | #2,357 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 25 | #3,103 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 23 | #3,117 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 18 | #3,673 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 18 | #3,593 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 8 | #6,245 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Essence a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Essence has been given almost only to girls: 17 boys in 53 years of records.
Girls and boys named Essence: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Essence, and how old are they?
10,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 10,761 Americans ever recorded as Essence. The median Essence alive today is 24 years old; half are between 15 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 7,458 people named Essence (7,424 women and girls, 34 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 9,411 born in the U.S. The Census count is 21% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 218 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,700 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 5,280 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,410 |
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 Essence born?
The states with the most babies named Essence are Texas, Florida and Georgia, with 41% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 26 | #1,073 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 19 | #836 | 1.0× |
| Georgia | 14 | #719 | 1.6× |
| North Carolina | 11 | #856 | 1.8× |
| Virginia | 11 | #674 | 1.4× |
| Michigan | 10 | #751 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 9 | #953 | 0.9× |
| California | 8 | #2,340 | 0.5× |
| Illinois | 7 | #1,156 | 1.0× |
| Louisiana | 6 | #701 | 1.7× |
Where Essence is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Essence is most over-represented in South Carolina: since 1973 it was given 2.4 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 Essence 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 11,211 babies since 1880, Essence is the most given (96% of them). In 2025 it was given to 205 of their 218 babies (94%), 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 Essence
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 Essence and names like it
- Compare Essence and EssynceBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sEssence peaked in 1998.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Essence since 1910.
- The top names of 1998The year the most babies were named Essence.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Essence alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with EMost given first.