Essie

About Essie

Essie is an English diminutive of Estelle or Esther, pronounced ESS-ee. Its meaning can be “star” through Estelle, while Esther's deeper origin is uncertain. The name has a long American history and distinct connections with Kashaya Pomo cultural leader Essie Parrish and Australian actor Essie Davis.

Two longer forms

Estelle comes from an Old French name meaning “star,” ultimately from Latin stella. Essie keeps its opening sound and adds the familiar -ie ending. Stella and Estella belong to the same broader star-name family, offering different full forms with a related history.

Esther supplies another route to Essie. Its origin may lie in a Persian word for “star,” but a connection with the goddess Ishtar has also been proposed. The two longer names can therefore converge on a similar interpretation without Esther's etymology being certain.

The biblical Esther is the Jewish queen at the center of the Book of Esther. Her story gives that branch of the family a religious and literary background distinct from Estelle's direct connection with the Latin word for a star.

Essie's sound is brief and open, with an initial vowel and a soft s. It can function as a nickname or a complete first name. Esta is another related short form, while Hester belongs to the Esther branch.

Essie Parrish and cultural preservation

Essie Parrish was a spiritual leader of Sonoma County's Kashaya Pomo community, an accomplished basket weaver, and an important figure in preserving her people's language and traditions. Her work combined artistic skill with teaching and community leadership.

She worked with Berkeley linguist Robert Oswalt to compile a Kashaya Pomo dictionary. Educating children in the community's language, culture, and laws was central to her mission. That contribution gives the name a connection to the practical work of keeping knowledge available to another generation.

Parrish also welcomed visitors to the community's ceremonial roundhouse. When Robert Kennedy visited in 1968, she escorted him there and gave him one of her baskets. Examples of her basketry are held by the Museum of Sonoma County, preserving her work as both art and local history.

Essie Davis on screen

Essie Davis plays Amelia in The Babadook, Jennifer Kent's 2014 horror film. Amelia is a widowed mother struggling to raise her son as a frightening presence enters their lives. The role brings grief, exhaustion, and parental anxiety into the film's supernatural story.

Davis's performance gives Essie a modern screen association quite different from its older appearance in American birth records. It also shows the short form used professionally as a complete public name.

American popularity

Essie reached its largest annual female count in 1921, with 1,032 births. Its strongest female ranking was earlier, #126 in 1896. By 1950 the count had fallen to 313 girls.

In 2025, forty-seven American girls received Essie, ranking #3,305. The spelling also appears historically for boys, although its larger totals are female. Its strongest American presence belongs to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

How popular is Essie?

In 2025, Essie ranked #3,305 among girls in the United States, with 47 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 1,032 in 1921. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.