Esme
Meaning
traditionally translated as 'esteemed' or 'loved'
Also written Esmé.
The story
Esme is old French for the esteemed and loved, a name literature kept safe for a century: Salinger addressed a story to her with love and squalor in 1950, and a gentle vampire matriarch carried her through the biggest saga of the 2000s. The record barely knew the name before that: single and double digits for seventy years, about 190 in the 1990s, then 970, then 4,100 in the 2010s, and already 5,600 so far this decade, past the full total, riding the same UK-import current as Poppy, one entry down this same batch. In our records it goes to girls about 10,900 to ten. Two syllables, no ornament, and a built-in dedication: to Esme, with love, which is roughly what several thousand American families a year are now writing on the certificate.
The formal names behind Esme
Esme is an established short form of this name.
Esmeralda · Spanish origin · "emerald"
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Esme peaked in the 2020s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
43 people · the #73,816 first name in Brazil · median age 10
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Esme
Most people given the name Esme in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Esme deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Esme truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Esme fits with your family’s names and surname.
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