Esmeralda
A Spanish feminine name meaning "emerald".
Name Census estimates that about 48,632 living Americans carry the first name Esmeralda. It sits at #350 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Esmeralda today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Esmeralda births was 1998 (2,484 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Esmeralda. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Esmeralda with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Esmeralda is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 180 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
49K
~ 1 in 7,048 Americans
Peak year
1998
2,484 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2004 SSA rank
#350
Tracked since 1911
Census
Esmeralda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 50,743 people with the first name Esmeralda, which placed it at #892 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
#892
National first-name rank
People counted
51K
50,743 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
16.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
95.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Esmeralda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Esmeralda is Hispanic at 95.7%. The next largest groups are White (2.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.0%). 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 Esmeralda 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 Esmeralda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino95.7% · 48,556
- White2.5% · 1,269
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 532
- Black or African American0.4% · 213
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 98
- Two or more races0.1% · 75
Gender
Gender distribution for Esmeralda
Out of the 50,923 babies given the name Esmeralda since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Esmeralda as a male name
- Ranked #11,909 in 2004
- 5 male births in 2004
- Peak: 1992 (14 births)
Esmeralda as a female name
- Ranked #350 in 2024
- 891 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1998 (2,477 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Esmeralda appears almost entirely female. Of the 50,748 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Esmeralda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Esmeralda from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 15,502 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Esmeralda 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 Esmeralda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Esmeraldas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Esmeralda, while South Dakota, Delaware, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,156 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Esmeralda
The name Esmeralda has its origins in the Spanish and Portuguese languages. It is derived from the Spanish word "esmeralda," which means "emerald" in English. This gemstone's name, in turn, comes from the Greek word "smaragdos," which is believed to have been adapted from an ancient Semitic language.
The earliest recorded use of the name Esmeralda dates back to the 16th century. It gained popularity in literature, particularly in Victor Hugo's 1831 novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," where the character Esmeralda, a beautiful gypsy dancer, played a central role.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Esmeralda was Esmeralda of Everingham, an English noblewoman who lived in the 13th century. She was the daughter of William de Fortibus, Earl of Albemarle.
In the 16th century, Esmeralda Bacon was an English noblewoman and the wife of Sir Thomas Hoby, a diplomat and translator. She lived from around 1533 to 1592.
Esmeralda Cervantes, born in 1585, was the youngest daughter of the renowned Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, best known for his novel "Don Quixote."
In the 19th century, Esmeralda Annan Woodhouse was a British writer and artist who lived from 1845 to 1920. She was known for her novels and paintings depicting the lives of working-class people in London.
Another notable figure was Esmeralda Simington, a Canadian writer and educator who lived from 1870 to 1953. She was a pioneer in the field of children's literature and wrote numerous books and stories for young readers.
Throughout history, the name Esmeralda has been associated with beauty, rarity, and precious gemstones, reflecting its origins and the alluring characteristics often attributed to the emerald.
People
Esmeralda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Esmeralda 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
Esmeralda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Esmeralda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 48,632 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Esmeralda 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 7,048 US residents.
Is Esmeralda a common name?
We classify Esmeralda as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 50,923 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Esmeralda most popular?
The single biggest year for Esmeralda was 1998, when 2,484 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Esmeralda is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Esmeralda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 50,743 people with the name Esmeralda, or 16.80 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #892 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 Esmeralda 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 Esmeralda?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Esmeralda appears almost entirely female. Of the 50,748 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Esmeralda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Esmeralda is Hispanic at 95.7%. The next largest groups are White (2.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.0%). 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 Esmeralda most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Esmeralda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.7% (48,556 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 Esmeralda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Esmeralda a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Esmeralda 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 Esmeralda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Esmeralda 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 Esmeralda 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 Americans are named Esmeralda?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.