🔥Esme

EZ-may

French

"beloved"

Esme Origin and Meaning

The name Esme is a girl's name of French, Persian origin meaning "beloved".

Esmé comes from the past participle of the Old French verb esmer, meaing "to esteem" or "to love." It can also be considered a derivative of the Spanish name Esmeralda, which means "emerald".

Esmé began life as a masculine name, as in its original bearer, Esmé Stewart,1st Duke of Lennox, and Esmée, with the same pronunciation, was the feminine form. Today both spellings are used as feminine given names, along with Anglicizations including Esmay and Esmae.

Esmé is a sweet, sophisticated and charming literary name, from J. D. Salinger's classic 1950 story For Esmé, With Love and Squalor. Esme is also one of the most stylish baby names that mean love.

A current favorite among celebs, including Samantha Morton, Michael J. Fox and Katey Sagal, Esme got a lot of publicity via the character Esme Cullen, the vampire matriarch of the Olympic Coven in the Twilight Saga. Esme has long been more popular across the pond in the UK, where it currently makes the Top 50 baby girl names.

The final accent indicates the pronunciation of ez-may, though in English you can just spell it Esme. Whatever the spelling, Esme is one of the fastest-rising girl names starting with E.

Esme Rank in US Top 1000

# 325 in the US

Esme Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 17 on Nameberry

Popularity of the name Esme

• 325 US 2023
• 17 Nameberry 2025
• 375 Future 2028
• 47 England 2023
• 33 Scotland 2024
• 100 Ireland 2017

20 Names Similar to Esme

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Esme.

• Thea
• Elodie
• Imogen
• Adelaide
• Freya
• Maeve
• Vera
• Emmeline
• Saoirse
• Faye
• Cora
• Elowen
• Evangeline
• Astrid
• Vivienne
• Genevieve
• Rosalie
• Sylvie
• Estelle
• Phoebe

Famous People Named Esme

• Esme Rosemary Irwin English cricketer
• Esme Langley English writer
• Esme Mackinnon Scottish Olympic skier
• Esme Grace Melville Australian actress
• Esme Irene Tombleson New Zealand politician
• Esme Bianco English actress, model and performer
• Esme Patterson lead singer of American band Paper Bird
• Esme Jane Gardner American Gardner quadruplet
• Esme Scarborough daughter of actor Adrian Scarborough
• Esme Perrygrove (1991) daughter of Ian Dickson
• Esme Edwards (1997) daughter of actor Anthony Edwards
• Esme Creed Miles (2000), daughter of Samantha Morton
• Esme Annabelle Fox (2001) daughter of Michael J. Fox
• Esme Norton (2004) daughter of Shelley Miranda Barrett and Richard Norton
• Esme Louise Sutter (2007) daughter of Kurt Sutter & Katey Sagal
• Esme Regan (b. 2007) daughter of actors Vincent Regan and Amelia Curtis
• Esme Stephenson (b. 2008) daughter of actress Nicola Stephenson
• Esme Marlena Jones (b. 2008) daughter of actors Alicia Coppola and Anthony Michael Jones
• Esme Bibi Ayoade (b. 2009) daughter of Lydia Fox & Richard Ayoade
• Esme Alexa Ingham (b.2009) Youtuber
• Esme Eccleston (b. 2013) son of Christopher Eccleston
• Esme Olivia Olsen (2016) daughter of Eric Christian Olsen & Sarah Wright Olsen

The name Esme in Pop Culture

• Esme Watson from Australian TV's "A Country Practice"
• Esme "For Esme with Love and Squalor," by J. D. Salinger
• Esme Cullen vampire mother in the Twilight Saga
• Esme Amarinth male character in "The Green Carnation"
• Esme Gigi Genevieve Squalor antagonist in Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events"
• Esme Rockett character in "Sister Mischief" by Laura Goode
• Esme character in The Recognitions by William Gaddis
• Esme Murray character on TV's "Hamish Macbeth"
• Esme Carter Taylor from "Anne of Windy Poplars"
• Esme ghost on children's television series "Dani's Castle"
• Esme Cuckoo mutant in X,Men comics
• Esme Song a character in Degrassi: Next Class
• Esme Vanderheusen character on American soap "Passions"
• Esme Weatherwax witch in Terry Pratchett's "Discworld"
• Esme Castillo character in "The Dollhouse" by Fiona Davis
• Esme Shelby (née Lee) character from Peaky Blinders
• Esme Frost character in the TV show "The Gifted"