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Hester

#15,766 in 2025Girls' name

Ishtar, through Esther

Hester has been given to 14,764 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #15,766 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1918, with 394 recorded.

Babies named Hester, 2025

1 in 663,000

Hester over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Hester: meaning, origin, and history

Ishtar, through Esther

Persian

What Hester means

Hester belongs to the name family reached through Hester → Esther. Its meaning is “Ishtar”.

Origin, language, and formation

Hester is used in English and Dutch. Its origins include Persian.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Esther.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Hester is pronounced /ˈhɛstɚ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 14,227 girls were recorded with the name Hester between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 394 in 1918; its best national rank was #202 in 1881.

In the United States, 537 boys were recorded with the name Hester between 1893 and 1970. Its highest annual count was 24 in 1916; its best national rank was #936 in 1900.

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 Hester?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 321,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#15,766
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
459,581 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Hester 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 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Hester. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Hesters were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Hester was born before 1920 — so the typical Hester is around 105 today.

Median birth year
1920
About 105 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
21.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
0.22%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,581
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 21.9% of all recorded uses (3,111).

Is Hester 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
1.3%
Peak was 1918 (394)
Years since peak
107
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#202
1881

Spellings of Hester

Hester is not the most common spelling — Heather is, with 61.5% against Hester's 1.7%.

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 Hester is used

Across 1910–2025, Hester was most concentrated in West Virginia — about 1 in 3,448 girls, against 1 in 17,430 across all states with data. It was least common in California (1 in —).

029 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1West Virginia1 in 3,448
  2. 2South Carolina1 in 3,846
  3. 3Kentucky1 in 4,348
  4. 4Arkansas1 in 5,556
  5. 5Mississippi1 in 5,556
  6. 6Virginia1 in 5,882
  7. 7North Carolina1 in 6,667
  8. 8Alabama1 in 7,692

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. Hester has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Hester around the world

Where Hester 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
    1996–2025
    #1,892
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1997–1997
    #653
    in 1997
  • Ireland
    1977–1977
    #518
    in 1977
  • South Australia
    1952–2010
    #801
    in 2010

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

Notable people named Hester

People whose public names include Hester, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Hester by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#15,766
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
New entry
Best rank ever
#202
1881
Peak year
1918
394 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
14,227
Count in 2025
5

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#936
1900
Peak year
1916
24 that year
First recorded
1893
Last recorded
1970
All-time count
537
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Hester

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

HunterWinterWynterCarterEsterKarterEasterHessieWalterPorterJupiterLesterAsterFosterPeterHestiaVesterSisterChesterHesperSlaterEtterDexterWynnter

Names with a curve like Hester

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Hester, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

LessieMadgeDessieMaudieGussieBertieOmaAlvinaVestaDovieLeliaVirgie

Sibling names for Hester

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 Hester

Top names of 1918, Hester's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1881More old lady namesGirls' names starting with HDutch Girl NamesPersian Girl Names