Hesper
The evening star; a bright celestial body in the western sky at sunset.
Name Census estimates that about 68 living Americans carry the first name Hesper. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Hesper today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hesper births was 1982 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hesper. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Hesper. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
68
~ 1 in 5,040,505 Americans
Peak year
1982
10 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2024 SSA rank
#16,133
Tracked since 1913
Popularity
Hesper: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hesper from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 47 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hesper 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 Hesper during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hesper
The name Hesper has its roots in ancient Greek mythology and language. It is derived from the Greek word "Hesperos," which means "evening" or "evening star." This name was used to refer to the planet Venus when it appeared as the bright evening star in the western sky after sunset.
Hesper was also the name given to the Greek goddess of the evening. She was one of the Hesperides, the nymph daughters of the night who lived in a blissful garden at the western edge of the world. In Greek myths, Hesper's garden was said to contain a tree with golden apples that Hercules was tasked with retrieving as part of his famous twelve labors.
The name Hesper first appeared in written records in ancient Greek literature and poetry dating back to the 8th century BCE. It was a relatively uncommon name in ancient Greece but held significance due to its mythological associations.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Hesper was Hesper of Athens, a Greek poet and philosopher who lived in the 5th century BCE. Another notable individual was Hesper of Borysthenes, a Greek historian and geographer from the 4th century BCE who wrote about the regions around the Black Sea.
In the Middle Ages, the name Hesper occasionally appeared in various European countries influenced by Greek culture and mythology. One example is Hesper of Saxony, a German noblewoman and landowner who lived in the 12th century.
During the Renaissance period, the name Hesper experienced a minor resurgence in popularity, particularly among scholars and intellectuals interested in reviving classical Greek and Roman culture. Hesper Phaethon was an Italian astronomer and mathematician born in 1501, who made significant contributions to the study of celestial mechanics.
In more recent times, the name Hesper has remained relatively rare but has been used by a few notable individuals. Hesper Le Galienne was an American writer and editor born in 1887, known for her work in promoting the Harlem Renaissance literary movement.
Overall, the name Hesper has a rich historical background rooted in ancient Greek mythology and language, symbolizing the evening star and its associated goddess. While not a widely popular name, it has been carried by various individuals over the centuries, particularly those with connections to literature, philosophy, and the study of the stars.
People
Hesper + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hesper as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Hesper: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hesper?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 68 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hesper 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 5,040,505 US residents.
Is Hesper a common name?
We classify Hesper as "Very Rare". It ranks above 58.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 108 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hesper most popular?
The single biggest year for Hesper was 1982, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hesper is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Hesper a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hesper 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.
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.