Essi

Girls' name

Diminutive of Ester

Essi has been given to 18 babies in the U.S. since 2018. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 2018, with 8 recorded.

Babies named Essi, 2022

1 in 677,000

Essi over time, 1880–2025

Girls

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Essi: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Ester

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Essi means

Essi is a diminutive of Ester.

Origin, language, and formation

Essi is used in Finnish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ester.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Essi is pronounced /ˈesːi/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 18 girls were recorded with the name Essi between 2018 and 2022. Its highest annual count was 8 in 2018; its best national rank was #11,752 in 2018.

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 Essi?

Essi had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2022, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2022: 1 in 677,000; 5 of 3,385,755 births
Among girls only: 1 in 328,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 2022: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 469,366 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Essi 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 2022 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 469,366 children born in 2022 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Essi. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Essis were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Essi was born before 2019 — so the typical Essi is around 6 today.

Median birth year: 2019; About 6 years old
Biggest decade: 2010s; 72.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 100.0%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 18; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

2010s — 72.2% of all recorded uses (13).

Is Essi 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: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 2018 (8)
Years since peak: 7; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 37.5% average annual change
Best rank ever: #11,752; 2018

Spellings of Essi

Essi is not the most common spelling — Elsie is, with 23.2% against Essi's <0.01%.

Elsie23.2%190,072
Bessie20.7%170,140
Jessie20.7%170,036
Tessa6.8%55,926
Essie4.8%39,682
Elsa3.7%30,710
Tess1.8%14,770
Lessie1.7%14,073

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.

Essi around the world

Where Essi 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
2015–2023
#5,688
in 2023

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.

Essi by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #11,752; 2018
Peak year: 2018; 8 that year
First recorded: 2018
Last recorded: 2022
All-time count: 18
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Essi

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

Yessi Essa Essex Essfa Essye Esslyn Kalissi Pessi Dessi Zissi Essiemae Calissi Tessi Sissi Essined Deyssi Crissi Essynce Essense Rossi Essica Chassi Nissi Kahlessi

Sibling names for Essi

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

For a sister

Oaklyn Keily Zaylee Aislinn Khaleesi Landry Avah Jemma

For a brother

Torin Kamryn Levon Merrick Bilal Mordechai Zaid Brecken

Explore around Essi

Top names of 2018, Essi's peak year The 2010s in full Other names that peaked in 2018 Girls' names starting with E Finnish Girl Names