Ester
Meaning and origin
Wiktionary describes it as a female given name from Hebrew.
Source: Wiktionary, Swedish entry for Ester (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Popularity in Sweden
Among newborns, Ester has been fairly steady over the last few years. Its best year between 1998 and 2022 was 2020. The figures are for this exact spelling; other spellings of the name are counted on their own.
Years with fewer than two babies (fewer than ten before 2004) show as zero in the chart and as – in the table.
Show the figures
| Year | Girls |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 25 |
| 1999 | 31 |
| 2000 | 36 |
| 2001 | 47 |
| 2002 | 63 |
| 2003 | 98 |
| 2004 | 101 |
| 2005 | 142 |
| 2006 | 152 |
| 2007 | 193 |
| 2008 | 198 |
| 2009 | 241 |
| 2010 | 236 |
| 2011 | 223 |
| 2012 | 249 |
| 2013 | 258 |
| 2014 | 241 |
| 2015 | 263 |
| 2016 | 243 |
| 2017 | 237 |
| 2018 | 240 |
| 2019 | 269 |
| 2020 | 282 |
| 2021 | 269 |
| 2022 | 256 |
Everyone registered in Sweden on 31 December with this as the first name they use.
Show the figures
| Year | Women and girls |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 8,388 |
| 2000 | 7,752 |
| 2001 | 7,219 |
| 2002 | 6,681 |
| 2003 | 6,247 |
| 2004 | 5,851 |
| 2005 | 5,598 |
| 2006 | 5,337 |
| 2007 | 5,167 |
| 2008 | 5,052 |
| 2009 | 4,979 |
| 2010 | 4,964 |
| 2011 | 4,933 |
| 2012 | 4,912 |
| 2013 | 4,968 |
| 2014 | 5,041 |
| 2015 | 5,113 |
| 2016 | 5,188 |
| 2017 | 5,286 |
| 2018 | 5,401 |
| 2019 | 5,546 |
| 2020 | 5,714 |
Ester in a sentence
- Hej! Jag heter Ester.Hi! My name is Ester.
- Ester har bott i Uppsala i tre år.Ester has lived in Uppsala for three years.
- Vet du om Ester kommer på festen på lördag?Do you know if Ester is coming to the party on Saturday?
- Esters mamma är lärare.Ester's mum is a teacher.
Swedish shows possession with a plain -s and no apostrophe: Esters mamma is Ester's mum.
Related names and other spellings
More names
Questions about Ester
How do you pronounce Ester in Swedish?
Press Listen at the top of the page to hear Ester from a native speaker's recording.
What does the name Ester mean?
Wiktionary describes it as a female given name from Hebrew.
How popular is Ester in Sweden?
256 babies were named Ester in 2022. In 2020, 5,714 people in Sweden had Ester as the first name they go by. Among newborns the name has been fairly steady lately and peaked in 2020 in the years SCB covers (1998–2022).
Popularity figures: Statistics Sweden (SCB), name statistics (BE0001) from the Statistical Database, released as open data under CC0. Each spelling is counted as its own name, as SCB does. SCB's open name statistics end with babies named in 2022 and the population on 31 December 2020; SCB stopped producing name statistics in 2024 and now points to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) for newer figures.
Origins, IPA and recordings: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), via kaikki.org; recordings from Lingua Libre on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA). Lingolib is not affiliated with SCB or Wiktionary. Sources last checked 7 October 2026.