Masterpiece Generator Name Generator
How popular is the name Esther?
Births per year, rank history and how many Esthers are alive today.
Esther (female) sits just outside the top 100 girls' names in England and Wales, ranked 150th in 2025 with 333 babies given the name. This spelling of the name peaked in 1904, when around 810 babies were given the name, the 76th most popular that year. Its fortunes dipped to rank 217 in 2002 before climbing back to the 150th place it holds today. Numbers have been stable in recent years. At least 52,000 babies have been named Esther in England and Wales since 1904. Figures before 1996 are estimates. Esther is one spelling of a name also recorded as Ester; the combined figures below cover every spelling.
Across all spellings of the name, the Esther you are most likely to meet is around 71 years old - or else around 10: the name has two living generations. Half of all Esthers born in England and Wales are between 23 and 72, and there are at least 30,000 of them alive today. If you walk into a room of 100 females, there's roughly a 9.1% chance that at least one of them will be called Esther.
How many babies are named Esther each year?
Includes all spellings: Esther, Ester. Figures before 1996 are estimates.
Where does the Esther spelling rank?
Where does the Ester spelling rank?
Where this data comes from
Figures from 1996 onwards are the Office for National Statistics' annual baby-name registrations for England and Wales, which record every name given to three or more babies in a year. Figures before 1996 are estimates: the ONS published only top-100 rankings at ten-year intervals back to 1904, so counts for those years are modelled from the rankings, calibrated against Douglas Galbi's long-run research into English name frequencies, and shown with an uncertainty band. Estimates of living bearers combine these birth figures with national life tables and ONS mid-year population estimates.
One limit worth naming: these figures count names as registered at birth. Anyone who changes their name later in life - including trans people, and anyone who adopts a different name by deed poll or simply by use - is not reflected here. Birth registrations record where a name began, not the name a person lives with.
Common questions
When was the name Esther most popular?
Esther peaked in 1904, when around 810 babies in England and Wales were given the name across all spellings.
How many people are called Esther?
At least 30,000 people named Esther in any spelling born in England and Wales are alive today.
How old is the typical Esther?
Most living Esthers are between 23 and 72; the most common age is about 71. There is a second cluster around 10.
Is Esther becoming more or less popular?
Broadly steady in recent years.