Essie
A diminutive of the feminine names Esther or Elizabeth.
Name Census estimates that about 6,652 living Americans carry the first name Essie. It is a predominantly female name (97.0% of registrations). The average person named Essie today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Essie births was 1919 (1,063 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Essie. 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 Essie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Essie is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,212 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Essie is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Essies were born before 1967.
People living today
6.7K
~ 1 in 51,527 Americans
Peak year
1919
1,063 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
1989 SSA rank
#2,718
Tracked since 1880
Census
Essie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,232 people with the first name Essie, which placed it at #3,061 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
#3,061
National first-name rank
People counted
7.2K
7,232 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
72.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Essie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Essie is Black at 72.2%. The next largest groups are White (21.5%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). 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 Essie 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 Essie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American72.2% · 5,225
- White21.5% · 1,552
- Two or more races2.6% · 190
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 169
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 49
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 47
Gender
Gender distribution for Essie
Essie leans heavily female at 97.0% of total registrations, but 1,212 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Essie as a male name
- Ranked #8,290 in 1989
- 5 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1919 (40 births)
Essie as a female name
- Ranked #2,718 in 2024
- 63 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (1,032 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Essie leans strongly female. 7,019 people counted with this name were female (97.0%), compared with 216 male bearers (3.0%).
Popularity
Essie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Essie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 9,227 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
Essie 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 Essie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Essies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama recorded the most babies named Essie, while Kansas, Iowa, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 997 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Essie
The given name Essie is a diminutive form of the name Esther, which has its origins in the Persian language. Esther was a Jewish queen of Persia who lived in the 5th century BCE. The name Esther is derived from the Persian word "star" or "stellar."
Esther is a prominent figure in the Old Testament and the Jewish holiday of Purim commemorates her bravery in saving the Jewish people from persecution. The book of Esther in the Bible details her story, and her name has been used throughout Jewish history.
The diminutive form Essie emerged as an English variant of Esther, likely in the 19th century. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Essie was Essie Summers, an American actress born in 1886.
Another notable Essie was Essie Stein, born in 1890, who was a prominent philanthropist and advocate for women's rights in the early 20th century. Stein was instrumental in establishing several organizations dedicated to improving the lives of women and children in New York City.
In literature, Essie is the name of a character in the novel "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin, published in 1899. The novel is considered an important work of feminist literature and Essie represents the societal expectations placed on women during that era.
Essie Davis, an Australian actress born in 1970, is another well-known person with this given name. She has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including "The Babadook" and "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries."
Essie Summers, the American actress mentioned earlier, was known for her roles in several silent films in the early 20th century, including "The Squaw Man" (1914) and "Hell-Roarin' Reform" (1919).
People
Essie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Essie 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
Essie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Essie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,652 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Essie 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 51,527 US residents.
Is Essie a common name?
We classify Essie as "Rare". It ranks above 97.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 40,847 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Essie most popular?
The single biggest year for Essie was 1919, when 1,063 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Essie is about 69 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Essie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,232 people with the name Essie, or 2.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,061 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 Essie 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 Essie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Essie leans strongly female. 7,019 people counted with this name were female (97.0%), compared with 216 male bearers (3.0%). 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 Essie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Essie is Black at 72.2%. The next largest groups are White (21.5%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). 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 Essie most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Essie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.2% (5,225 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 Essie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Essie a female name?
Yes, 97.0% of people registered as Essie 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 Essie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Essie 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 Essie 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 have Essie as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Essie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.