Ersie
A diminutive form of Esther, derived from the Persian word meaning "star".
Name Census estimates that about 22 living Americans carry the first name Ersie. It is a predominantly female name (98.8% of registrations). The average person named Ersie today is around 92 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ersie births was 1914 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ersie. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Ersie is about 92 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Ersies were born before 1944.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Ersie. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
22
~ 1 in 15,579,743 Americans
Peak year
1914
20 babies that year
Average age
92
years old
1920 SSA rank
#4,512
Tracked since 1893
Census
Ersie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 105 people with the first name Ersie, which placed it at #52,717 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#52,717
National first-name rank
People counted
105
105 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ersie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ersie is White at 46.7%. The next largest groups are Black (41.0%) and Hispanic (8.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Ersie described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Ersie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.7% · 49
- Black or African American41.0% · 43
- Hispanic or Latino8.6% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 3
- Two or more races1.0% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Ersie
Ersie leans heavily female at 98.8% of total registrations, but 5 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ersie as a male name
- Ranked #4,512 in 1920
- 5 male births in 1920
- Peak: 1920 (5 births)
Ersie as a female name
- Ranked #5,493 in 1948
- 5 female births in 1948
- Peak: 1914 (20 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ersie leans strongly female. 81 people counted with this name were female (81.8%), compared with 18 male bearers (18.2%).
Popularity
Ersie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ersie from the 1890s through to the 1940s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 141 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ersie by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Ersie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ersies live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ersie
The name Ersie is a diminutive form of the English name Ersy, which itself is a variant spelling of the name Ursula. Ursula derives from the Latin word ursa, meaning "she-bear." The name likely originated in the early medieval period, around the 5th or 6th century AD, when Latin was still widely spoken across Europe.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Ursula was Saint Ursula, a legendary Roman Catholic virgin martyr who was believed to have been killed alongside her companions by the Huns in Cologne, Germany, around the year 383 AD. However, many scholars now believe that the story of Saint Ursula and her companions was a pious fiction that emerged several centuries later.
The name Ursula gained popularity in the Middle Ages, particularly in Catholic regions of Europe where veneration of saints was widespread. Over time, various diminutive forms and spelling variations emerged, including Ersie.
One notable historical figure with the name Ersie was Ersie Joyner (1896-1980), an American politician who served as the first female mayor of Washington, D.C., from 1947 to 1949. Another was Ersie Jean Little (1924-2021), a Canadian children's author best known for her novel "From Anna," which won the Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature in 1973.
In the realm of literature, the name Ersie appeared in several works, such as the 1876 novel "Daniel Deronda" by George Eliot, where it was the name of a minor character. Additionally, Ersie was the name of a character in the 1906 play "The Scarecrow" by Percy MacKaye.
Other notable individuals named Ersie include Ersie Burke (1914-1998), an American artist and illustrator known for her work with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression, and Ersie Craver (1906-1985), an American businesswoman and philanthropist who co-founded the Craver Barrel restaurant chain.
While the name Ersie has fallen out of widespread use in modern times, it remains a unique and historically significant name with roots tracing back to the early medieval period and the Latin language.
People
Ersie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ersie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ersie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ersie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 22 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ersie going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 15,579,743 US residents.
Is Ersie a common name?
We classify Ersie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 41.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 420 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ersie most popular?
The single biggest year for Ersie was 1914, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ersie is about 92 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ersie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 105 people with the name Ersie, or 0.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #52,717 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Ersie in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Ersie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ersie leans strongly female. 81 people counted with this name were female (81.8%), compared with 18 male bearers (18.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Ersie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ersie is White at 46.7%. The next largest groups are Black (41.0%) and Hispanic (8.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Ersie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ersie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.7% (49 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Ersie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ersie a female name?
Yes, 98.8% of people registered as Ersie in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Ersie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ersie in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Ersie can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Ersie?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.