Esteban
A Spanish masculine name derived from the Greek 'Stephanos', meaning "crown".
Name Census estimates that about 32,959 living Americans carry the first name Esteban. It sits at #456 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Esteban today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Esteban births was 2005 (1,024 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Esteban. 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 Esteban with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
33K
~ 1 in 10,399 Americans
Peak year
2005
1,024 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#456
Tracked since 1891
Census
Esteban in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 40,476 people with the first name Esteban, which placed it at #1,036 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
#1,036
National first-name rank
People counted
40K
40,476 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
13.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
96.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Esteban
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Esteban is Hispanic at 96.5%. The next largest groups are White (2.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.8%). 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 Esteban 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 Esteban at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino96.5% · 39,056
- White2.2% · 884
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 307
- Black or African American0.3% · 124
- Two or more races0.1% · 55
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 50
Gender
Gender distribution for Esteban
Out of the 34,944 babies given the name Esteban since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Esteban as a male name
- Ranked #456 in 2024
- 681 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2005 (1,024 births)
Esteban as a female name
- Ranked #11,513 in 1998
- 7 female births in 1998
- Peak: 1991 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Esteban appears almost entirely male. Of the 40,480 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Esteban: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Esteban from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 8,658 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Esteban remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Esteban 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 Esteban during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Estebans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. California, Texas, Arizona recorded the most babies named Esteban, while District of Columbia, Kentucky, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 850 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Esteban
The name Esteban is of Spanish origin and derives from the ancient Greek name Stephanos, meaning "crown" or "wreath." It gained popularity in Spain during the Middle Ages, particularly after the spread of Christianity in the region.
Esteban was a common name among early Christian martyrs, and one of the first recorded instances of the name appears in the New Testament of the Bible. Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is referred to as Esteban in Spanish.
During the height of the Spanish Empire, the name Esteban was widely used throughout Spain and its colonies in the Americas. Notable historical figures with this name include Esteban de Antuñano, a 16th-century Spanish explorer and navigator who participated in the colonization of the Americas, and Esteban Gómez, a Portuguese explorer who sailed for Spain and is credited with discovering parts of North America in the early 16th century.
In the realm of art and literature, Esteban Murillo (1617-1682) was a renowned Spanish Baroque painter known for his religious works and genre scenes. Esteban Echeverría (1805-1851), on the other hand, was an Argentine writer, poet, and politician who played a significant role in the Argentine Romantic literary movement.
Another notable figure was Esteban de Luca (1786-1824), a Spanish military officer who fought against the French during the Peninsular War and later joined the Mexican War of Independence, where he rose to the rank of General.
Moving into the 20th century, Esteban Orue (1907-1989) was a prominent Uruguayan painter and sculptor known for his abstract and cubist works, while Esteban Trueba (1919-2012) was a Chilean writer and diplomat who served as ambassador to several countries.
People
Esteban + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Esteban 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
Esteban: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Esteban?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 32,959 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Esteban 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 10,399 US residents.
Is Esteban a common name?
We classify Esteban as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 34,944 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Esteban most popular?
The single biggest year for Esteban was 2005, when 1,024 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Esteban 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 Esteban in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 40,476 people with the name Esteban, or 13.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,036 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 Esteban 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 Esteban?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Esteban appears almost entirely male. Of the 40,480 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Esteban?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Esteban is Hispanic at 96.5%. The next largest groups are White (2.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.8%). 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 Esteban most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Esteban in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.5% (39,056 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 Esteban in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Esteban a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Esteban in the SSA data are male. 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 Esteban still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Esteban 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 Esteban 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 Esteban as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.