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Esmerelda

#5,016 in 2025Girls' name

Emerald, through Esmeralda

Esmerelda has been given to 776 babies in the U.S. since 1971. In 2025 it ranked #5,016 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2021, with 39 recorded.

Babies named Esmerelda, 2025

1 in 128,000

Esmerelda over time, 1880–2025

Girls
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Esmerelda: meaning, origin, and history

Emerald, through Esmeralda

Spanish

What Esmerelda means

Esmerelda belongs to the name family reached through Esmerelda → Esmeralda. Its meaning is “emerald”.

Origin, language, and formation

Esmerelda is used in English. Its origins include Spanish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Esmeralda.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 776 girls were recorded with the name Esmerelda between 1971 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 39 in 2021; its best national rank was #3,823 in 2021.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #5,714 in 2020 to #5,016 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #5,714 in 2015 to #5,016 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Esmerelda?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 128,000
26 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 61,800
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#5,016
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
88,382 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Esmerelda sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 88,382 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Esmerelda. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Esmereldas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Esmerelda was born before 2007 — so the typical Esmerelda is around 18 today.

Median birth year
2007
About 18 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
23.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
65.1%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
776
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 23.6% of all recorded uses (183).

Is Esmerelda rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−783
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+698
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+698
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.13×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
66.7%
Peak was 2021 (39)
Years since peak
4
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
28.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,823
2021

Spellings of Esmerelda

Esmerelda is not the most common spelling — Esmeralda is, with 97.6% against Esmerelda's 1.5%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Esmerelda is used

Across 1910–2025, Esmerelda was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 317,907 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Esmerelda has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Esmerelda around the world

Where Esmerelda ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2003–2025
    #3,333
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1988–1988
    #657
    in 1988

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Esmerelda by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#5,016
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 698
Best rank ever
#3,823
2021
Peak year
2021
39 that year
First recorded
1971
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
776
Count in 2025
26

Names similar to Esmerelda

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

EsmeraldaEzmeraldaEsmaraldaEsmerayEsmeeEsmerldaEzmereldaGrizeldaChriseldaEsmarieBrunildaEsmaeClotildaEsmaGriceldaEsmayCriseldaEsmeraeEsmeraldoReynaldaDonaldaMathildaDoneldaGriselda

Sibling names for Esmerelda

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Esmerelda

Top names of 2021, Esmerelda's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2021Girls' names starting with E