Esther
given name · Latin script
Meaning: The name Esther is likely derived from the Old Persian word "stāreh," meaning "star," or is possibly related to the name of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/esteɾ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Esther is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Nigeria than in any other country. In Qatar it is the 2nd most common given name.
- NGNigeria≈1 in 143(inferred from the name graph)
- ESSpain1 in 696
- USUnited States1 in 2.5K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Esther itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Nigeria (inferred from the name graph)
- #368 (measured from records)
- 5 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 424 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 143 (inferred from the name graph)
≈1,500,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Nigeria, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled אסתר in IL Israel, QA Qatar.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
The name Esther is likely derived from the Old Persian word "stāreh," meaning "star," or is possibly related to the name of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. Her Hebrew name, Hadassah, means "myrtle tree."
Sources 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Esther counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NG Nigeria | #929 | ≈1,500,000 est. | ≈1 in 143 | listed | Esther | 65 |
| BR Brazil | #693 | 176,238as Ester | 1 in 1.2K | 176K | Esther | 148 |
| US United States | — | 131,090 | 1 in 2.5K | 131K | Esther | 424 |
| ES Spain | #60 | 71,876 | 1 in 696 | 73K | Esther | 225 |
| HU Hungary | — | 59,971as Eszter | 1 in 163 | 60K | — | 3 |
| IL Israel | #10 | ≈47,000 est. | ≈1 in 186 | 61 | אסתר | 77 |
| QA Qatar | #2 | ≈17,000 est. | ≈1 in 144 | — | אסתר | 17 |
| SE Sweden | — | 16,702as Ester | 1 in 611 | 17K | — | 26 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: CBS Israel — Names given to babies (1949–present); INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); Nyilvántartó — Top-100 given names in population (2020–2025); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Esther is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
The name Esther, meaning 'star,' belongs to the brave and beautiful biblical queen who risked her life to save her people. It represents courage, hidden strength, and royalty.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In English, Persian name of unknown meaning; used in Ireland to ‘translate’ Ashling and sometimes given to Easter-born children.
as a nameIrish first names
In French, Biblical name, probably from Persian stāra ‘star’ or linked to Ishtar
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In French, Possibly Persian/Assyrian; here linked to « star ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In English, Old Testament book; pers. name
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Estée Lauderb. 1906USnot in their usual nameAmerican businesswoman (1906–2004)
- Esther Williamsb. 1921USAmerican swimmer, actress and singer (1921–2013)
- Vidal Sassoonb. 1928GBnot in their usual nameBritish hairstylist (1928–2012)
- Katherine Jacksonb. 1930USnot in their usual namematriarch of the Jackson musical family
- Esther Perelb. 1958BEBelgian psychotherapist and author
- Gretchen Whitmerb. 1971USnot in their usual nameAmerican politician and attorney (born 1971)
- Esther Duflob. 1972FRFrench-American economist (born 1972)
- Esther Vergeerb. 1981NLDutch wheelchair tennis player
- Esther Acebob. 1983ESSpanish actress
- Ester Deanb. 1986USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer and songwriter
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 143 sources across 79 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 131K | #432 |
| ES Spain | INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 73K | #68 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 72K | #133 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 60K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 59K | #507 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2020 | 16K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 11K | #1,985 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 6.2K | #543 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 2.8K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 2.3K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 318 | #507 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 250 | #432 |
Reference works 5
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Esther mean, and where does it come from?
- The name Esther is likely derived from the Old Persian word "stāreh," meaning "star," or is possibly related to the name of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- Is Esther a male or female name?
- Esther is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What are other forms of the name Esther?
- In the etymology graph, Vanessa, Ester and Esta are forms of the same name in other languages; Essie is a recorded short or pet form.
- In which country does Esther have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 1.5 million people named Esther in Nigeria, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled esther.
- How do you pronounce Esther?
- A machine transcription gives /esteɾ/ (IPA) for Spanish.
- How common is the name Esther?
- In the United States, the national register counted 131,090 people named Esther in 2020, about 1 in 2.5 thousand residents.
- How common is Esther compared with other names?
- In Nigeria, Esther is the 929th most common given name of 138,191 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Esther?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/estherThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Esther” — the 929th most common given name in Nigeria. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.