Estee
A French feminine name meaning "summer", "star" or "esteemed one".
Name Census estimates that about 768 living Americans carry the first name Estee. It is a predominantly female name (95.0% of registrations). The average person named Estee today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Estee births was 1992 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Estee. 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 Estee with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
768
~ 1 in 446,295 Americans
Peak year
1992
29 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
1955 SSA rank
#4,032
Tracked since 1917
Census
Estee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 882 people with the first name Estee, which placed it at #13,618 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
#13,618
National first-name rank
People counted
882
882 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Estee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Estee is White at 65.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.9%) and Black (9.3%). 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 Estee 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 Estee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.0% · 573
- Hispanic or Latino13.9% · 123
- Black or African American9.3% · 82
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.8% · 60
- Two or more races4.4% · 39
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Estee
Estee leans heavily female at 95.0% of total registrations, but 43 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Estee as a male name
- Ranked #4,032 in 1955
- 5 male births in 1955
- Peak: 1924 (7 births)
Estee as a female name
- Ranked #5,994 in 2024
- 20 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1992 (29 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Estee leans strongly female. 835 people counted with this name were female (94.9%), compared with 45 male bearers (5.1%).
Popularity
Estee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Estee from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 191 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Estee remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Estee 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 Estee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Estees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Estee, while Florida, California, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Estee
The name Estee is a French form of the Spanish name Esther, which in turn derives from the Persian name استر (Ester). The Persian name is believed to have its origins in the Old Persian word ستاره (stara), meaning "star". The name Esther was brought into the Greek language as Ἐσθήρ (Esthēr), and from there it spread to many other languages and cultures.
The earliest recorded use of the name Esther comes from the biblical Book of Esther, where it is the name of a Jewish queen in the Persian empire. The story of Esther is celebrated in the Jewish holiday of Purim, which commemorates how she saved the Jewish people from persecution. As a result, the name has been popular among Jews for centuries.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Estee was Estee Lauder (1908-2004), the American businesswoman who founded the cosmetics company that bears her name. Another notable Estee was Estee Ackerman (1916-1998), an American politician who served as a member of the New York City Council.
In literature, the name Estee appears in works such as Estee: A Success Story by Ralph Ginzburg, a biography of Estee Lauder published in 1962. There was also a character named Estee in the novel The House of Estee by Sylvia Green, published in 1962.
Other notable individuals named Estee include Estee Culer (1904-1936), a Canadian actress active in the early 20th century, and Estee Wortzel (1923-2010), an American educator and author who wrote several books on teaching methods.
While the name Estee is most commonly associated with the French and Spanish forms, it has also been used in other languages and cultures. For example, there have been individuals named Estee in Russia, Israel, and various countries in South America.
People
Estee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Estee 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
Estee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Estee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 768 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Estee 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 446,295 US residents.
Is Estee a common name?
We classify Estee as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 856 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Estee most popular?
The single biggest year for Estee was 1992, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Estee is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Estee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 882 people with the name Estee, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,618 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 Estee 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 Estee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Estee leans strongly female. 835 people counted with this name were female (94.9%), compared with 45 male bearers (5.1%). 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 Estee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Estee is White at 65.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.9%) and Black (9.3%). 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 Estee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Estee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.0% (573 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 Estee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Estee a female name?
Yes, 95.0% of people registered as Estee 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 Estee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Estee 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 Estee 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 common is the name Estee?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.