Hester

Medieval variation of Esther, Persian
"star"

Hester Origin and Meaning

The name Hester is a girl's name meaning "star".

The disgraced heroine of The Scarlet Letter's name, after long neglect, just might have a chance at revival, following in the wake of sister-name Esther. We've characterized her elsewhere as an eccentric aristocrat, much more accepted in the U.K. than she has been here.

Hester's beyond-Hawthorne's literary appearances include as characters in Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy, in Oscar Wilde's play A Woman of No Importance, in John Irving's novel A Prayer for Owen Meaney, and as Niles and Frasier Crane's mom on Frasier.

Hetty is Hester's usual nickname, sometimes used independently.

# 889 in the US

Hester Rank in US Top 1000

# 976 on Nameberry

Hester Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Hester Popularity

Famous People Named Hester

  • Hester Santlow
    "England's first ballerina"
  • Hester Grenville
    1st Countess Temple, 2nd Viscountess Cobham, mother of Hester Pitt and British PM George Grenville; grandmother of PM William Grenville
  • Hester (Grenville) Pitt
    Countess of Chatham, wife of British Prime Minister William Pitt; daughter of Hester Grenville
  • Hester Stanhope
    Viscountess Mahon, daughter of William and Hester Pitt
  • Hester Lucy Stanhope
    English traveler and Arabist; daughter of Charles and Hester Stanhope; granddaughter of William and Hester Pitt
  • Hester Lynch Thrale
    Welsh diarist
  • Hester Maria (Thrale) Elphinstone
    Viscountess Keith, English literary correspondent; daughter of Hester Thrale
  • Hester Burton
    English children's novelist
  • Hester Margaret Sainsbury
    English artist, dancer and poet
  • Hester Maria Peirce
    American lawyer and commissioner of the SEC
  • Hester Ashmead Davis
    American archaeologist
  • Hester Chapone
    English author of women's conduct books

Hester in Pop Culture

  • Hester Prynne
    main character in "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Hester Collyer/Page
    character in Sir Terence Rattigan's 1952 play, The Deep Blue Sea
  • Hester Shaw
    character in Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines series
  • Hester
    daemon in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy
  • Hester Frump
    Morticia's mother on TV's "The Addams Family"
  • Hester Dethridge
    one of Wilkie Collins' "best half,mad villainesses, homicidal keeper of Anne Silvester in her captivity," in "Man and Wife" (1870)
  • Hester Rose (Palmer) Crane
    mother of Frasier and Niles on TV's "Cheers" and "Frasier"
  • Hester
    Sue Terhune, character on TV's 'Little House on the Prairie'
  • Hester
    character in Soman Chainani's The School for Good and Evil series
  • Hester
    character in "A woman called Fancy" by Frank Yerby
  • Hester Latterly
    character in Anne Perry's William Monk series
  • Hester St Clare aka Hassar San Kahlar
    character in K.A. Barker's "The Book of Days"
  • Hester
    angel in Erik Kripke's "Supernatural"
  • Hester Ulrich
    character in TV Series "Scream Queens"
  • Hester Grey
    character in Rumer Godden's " The Greengage Summer"