Esme

girls:

9k births since 1913

#1710 (70th percentile)

boys:

10 births since 2016

#4576 (0th percentile)

overall:

9k births since 1913

#2849 (63rd percentile)

Popularity Trends

The name Esme is the #2,849 most popular name of all time in the U.S. on a gender-neutral basis, with a total of 8,975 recorded births since 1913. This represents the 63.2% percentile of name popularity (more popular than 63.2% of all names). For girls, it ranks #1,710 (70.1% percentile) for all time with 8,965 births since 1913. For boys, it ranks #4,576 (0.2% percentile) for all time with 10 births since 2016.

Esme first appeared in U.S. birth records in 1913 (1913 for girls and 2016 for boys). Birth data for Esme is available in 51 out of the 111 years between 1913 and 2023 (51 years for girls and 2 years for boys). The Social Security Administration only reports birth data for years in which the name was given to at least five children of the same gender.

The name Esme has been given almost exclusively to girls, with 99.9% of all recorded births being female.

For girls, Esme reached its peak popularity in 2022, achieving the 69.7% percentile (ranked #291) with 586 births per million. The name was most common in 2022, with 586 births per million (ranked 69.7% percentile). Since reaching a low point around 1992, the popularity of this name for girls has been increasing. Currently, Esme ranks #307 for girls (67.7% percentile) with 540 births per million, which is 92.2% of its peak share of births.

For boys, Esme reached its peak popularity in 2021, achieving the 0.0% percentile (ranked #930) with 3 births per million. The name was most common in 2021, with 3 births per million (ranked 0.0% percentile). There have been no recorded male births with this name since 2021.

This chart shows the total number of births per million babies in each year for the name "Esme".

1913 2023 19132023

Key Statistics

Total Births
8,965
Peak Births
1,050
Peak Year
2022
First Recorded
1913
Peak Percentile
69.7%
Current Percentile
67.7%
Peak Rank
#291
Current Rank
#307
Female statistics
Total Births
10
Peak Births
5
Peak Year
2021
First Recorded
2016
Peak Percentile
0.0%
Current Percentile
Peak Rank
#930
Current Rank
Male statistics

How to Pronounce Esme

Our model has identified 11 different pronunciations for the name Esme. Click the play button under each pronunciation to hear it spoken aloud.

Our model is 20.6% confident that Esme is pronounced as EHZ-mee, which has 2 syllables. The next most likely pronunciation is EHZ-may, at 14.3% confidence, with 2 syllables.

2
20.6%
2
14.3%
2
12.7%
1
12.7%
2
12.7%
2
6.3%
2
6.3%
1
4.8%
2
3.2%
2
3.2%
2
3.2%
EHZ-mee (2 syllables)
20.6% confidence
EH1 Z M IY0
EHZ-may (2 syllables)
14.3% confidence
EH1 Z M EY0
EH-smay (2 syllables)
12.7% confidence
EH1 S M EY0
ehzm (1 syllable)
Verified
12.7% confidence
EH1 Z M
EH-smee (2 syllables)
12.7% confidence
EH1 S M IY0
EHZ-MAY (2 syllables)
6.3% confidence
EH1 Z M EY1
EH-SMAY (2 syllables)
6.3% confidence
EH1 S M EY1
ehsm (1 syllable)
4.8% confidence
EH1 S M
ehz-may (2 syllables)
3.2% confidence
EH0 Z M EY0
ehz-MEE (2 syllables)
3.2% confidence
EH0 Z M IY1
eh-smay (2 syllables)
3.2% confidence
EH0 S M EY0

Possible Additional Pronunciations

If none of the pronunciations above sound right to you, could you please check whether any of these related pronunciations should be applied to the name Esme? These are pronunciations that other similar names use, but which are not currently associated with Esme. If you think any of these are valid pronunciations for Esme, please vote using the thumbs up button.

About Pronunciation Data

Our confidence scores estimate the likelihood that a particular pronunciation is the most correct for a given name spelling. These scores are derived from pronunciation dictionaries, manual verification, your feedback, and a fine-tuned large language model trained to generate name pronunciations.

For any given spelling, confidence scores across all identified pronunciations sum to 100%. However, these scores don't account for the possibility of valid pronunciations that our model hasn't identified.

The raw pronunciations shown (like EH1 Z M IY0) use the ARPAbet phoneme system, a standardized way to represent English speech sounds. Each symbol represents a distinct sound in American English. Visit the ARPAbet Wikipedia page to learn more about these phonetic symbols.

Pronunciation audio is generated by an open source text to speech model that has been customized to adhere to pronunciations provided in ARPAbet format, but sometimes pronunciations that differ subtly will sound identical, particularly if the only difference is the level of emphasis on a syllable or a single vowel sound.

© 2025 NamePlay.org

Made with ❤️ by Aaron J Becker