Estelle

About Estelle

Estelle is a French name meaning “star,” ultimately from Latin stella. Pronounced es-TELL in English, it has two syllables and a stressed final ending. Its history combines an old celestial meaning with a nineteenth-century revival, a familiar Dickensian relative, and a modern Swedish royal bearer.

A star name through French

Estelle comes into English from French, with a connection to Occitan estela, “star,” and ultimately Latin stella. The related English forms Stella and Estella keep the same underlying image.

Their rhythms differ. Stella begins with its stressed syllable, Estella has three syllables, and Estelle builds toward its final TELL. French Estelle also sounds its final l, while the last written e does not add another syllable.

Essie is an established familiar form in English. Elle could also be a personal shortening drawn from the ending. The full Estelle has a more compact shape than Estella while retaining the French spelling.

The name was rare in medieval English-speaking use and returned more visibly in the nineteenth century. Estella Havisham in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations may have contributed to that renewed attention.

The Dickens connection

The novel’s character is Estella, rather than Estelle, but the names belong to the same family. Estella is the adopted daughter of the wealthy and embittered Miss Havisham, whose household changes the young Pip’s life.

Pip begins as an orphan living with his sister and her blacksmith husband, Joe Gargery. Meeting Estella becomes part of his growing dissatisfaction with his own position and his wish to become a gentleman.

When a mysterious benefactor makes that transformation possible, his new life does not settle his romantic hopes. The story makes Estella central to Pip’s ideas about status, love, and what a different future might offer him. That literary association gives this family of star names a complicated human story alongside its simple meaning.

Princess Estelle of Sweden

Princess Estelle, born on February 23, 2012, is the first child of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden. Her full names are Estelle Silvia Ewa Mary.

Her grandfather announced her name and her title, Duchess of Östergötland, after her birth. She was christened in the Royal Chapel at Stockholm’s Royal Palace in May 2012. This modern royal connection uses the exact Estelle spelling, giving the name a prominent setting outside France and the English-speaking world.

American popularity

Estelle’s best American rank was 106th for girls in 1911. Its highest annual count came in 1915, with 1,784 births.

Use later fell substantially: 240 girls received it in 1950, and 63 in 2000. More recently, it has risen again, from 158 girls in 2010 to 523 in 2025, when it ranked 573rd. The pattern shows a gradual return after a much quieter period in the late twentieth century.

How popular is Estelle?

In 2025, Estelle ranked #573 among girls in the United States, with 523 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 1,784 in 1915. 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.