girl's name
Esmeralda
ez-mur-AL-duh
- Origin Spanish
- Gender Girl
- Letters 9
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 54,162
the United States
#373
2025 births
Esmeralda is not the character's name in the novel — Hugo's girl is christened Agnès and called Esmeralda for the green amulet she wears, so the name most readers know her by is a nickname.
- Esmeralda is a name of Spanish origin.
- Peaked in 1998, when 2,484 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 4,028 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1911.
Esmeralda over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1910s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1910s | 28 |
| 1920s | 97 |
| 1930s | 112 |
| 1940s | 336 |
| 1950s | 1,092 |
| 1960s | 1,615 |
| 1970s | 3,925 |
| 1980s | 4,845 |
| 1990s | 10,356 |
| 2000s | 15,502 |
| 2010s | 8,879 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 4,964 |
What Esmeralda means
Esmeralda means emerald. It names the gemstone directly, so the sense is the stone's color and value rather than any quality of the person, and its value rather than her character.
Where Esmeralda comes from
Esmeralda is the Spanish for an emerald, from the Latin smaragdus and the Greek smaragdos, itself borrowed from a Semitic root — the word traveled the trade routes with the stone. Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris of 1831 gave it to a girl whose baptismal name is Agnès and who is called Esmeralda after the green silk amulet she wears, a detail most adaptations drop. The name spread through Spanish-speaking America rather than through France.
Esmeralda in use
Esmeralda peaked in the United States in 1998, when 2,484 babies were registered, and our data marks it stable rather than falling. It now ranks 373rd in the United States on 823 births, 775th in Scotland on 4, 893rd in England and Wales on 40 and 1471st in France on 40, across 54,162 lifetime births in five of the seven markets we track. England and Wales set its own peak in the most recent year we hold.
How popular is Esmeralda?
In 2025, Esmeralda was given to 823 babies in the United States, ranking #373 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Esmeralda is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Esmeralda is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Esméralda | Esméralda is Esmeralda written with an acute accent, used in France, where it ranks #1,876. | 155 |
Names that peaked alongside Esmeralda
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Esmeralda also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Esmeralda over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
1 nickname for Esmeralda
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Esmeralda in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
- Dutch
- Esmée
Sibling names for Esmeralda
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Esmeralda — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Esmeralda
What does the name Esmeralda mean?
Emerald — the Spanish for the gemstone.
Is it the character's real name?
No. Hugo christens her Agnès; Esmeralda comes from the green amulet she wears.
Where does the word emerald come from?
Greek smaragdos, borrowed from a Semitic root and carried along the trade routes.
How popular is Esmeralda?
373rd in the United States, and stable rather than falling in our data.
Is Esmeralda a girl's or a boy's name?
Esmeralda is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
What are the nicknames for Esmeralda?
Esmeralda is usually shortened to Esme.
Is Esmeralda a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Esmeralda currently ranks #373 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.