Girls' name · peaked in 2000

Esperanza name popularity since 1925

19,708 babies born in the US from 1925 to 2025 were named Esperanza. Half of them were born in 1993 or earlier, so the typical Esperanza is about 33 years old in 2026. Esperanza peaked in 2000 as the #528 name for girls, and it was outside the top 1,000 in 2025.

US babies since 1925: 19,708; Named Esperanza, 1925–2025
Peak year: 2000; #528 for girls that year
Typical age: About 33; Median birth year 1993
In 2025: Not top 1,000; #1,209 for girls in 2025
Girls / boys: 99.8% girls; 19,678 girls · 30 boys
Most popular in: New Mexico; 8.83× its national share

Peak year is the year Esperanza made up the largest share of US girls, in records going back to 1880. Typical age is based on births from 1925 on, not on who is living today.

Esperanza births per year, 1925–2025

2000 was the biggest year for Esperanza both by count and as a share of all babies.

Steepest fall: Between 1951 and 1956, Esperanza's share of baby girls fell by 48%, from 1 in 10,200 to 1 in 19,500.
Fastest rise: Between 1992 and 1997, it became 2.3× more common, from 1 in 12,800 baby girls to 1 in 5,510.

Shaded on the chart. Both compare Esperanza's share of all US girls five years apart, counting only years with at least 100 babies named Esperanza.

Decade by decade

Babies named Esperanza in each decade, and its rank among girls' names in the middle year of the decade (1935, 1945 … 2025).

Decade	Girls	Boys	Rank
1925–29	1,023	10	–
1930s	1,385	5	#580
1940s	1,602	0	#548
1950s	1,500	0	#806
1960s	1,232	0	#925
1970s	1,317	0	#944
1980s	1,302	10	#1,244
1990s	2,359	0	#890
2000s	3,814	5	#742
2010s	2,690	0	#922
2020–25	1,454	0	#1,209

Ranks count every name given to at least 5 girls that year, so they can go past 1,000.

Generation fingerprint

28.7% of babies named Esperanza from 1925 to 2025 were born in the Gen Z years (1997–2012). The full split by generation:

Where Esperanza is most popular

The index compares Esperanza's share of babies in each state with its share nationwide, 1925–2025 (1.50× = 50% more common). States with at least 300 babies named Esperanza.

State	Index	Babies
New Mexico	8.83×	826
Arizona	4.71×	1,035
Texas	4.66×	6,195
California	2.93×	5,259
Colorado	2.09×	436

Names with a similar story

Of the other 1999 names on this site, these six had the share of babies closest in shape to Esperanza's from 1925 to 2025, however common each one got. Each line is scaled to its own high; the dashed line is Esperanza.

Names from the same era

Other common names that peaked within two years of Esperanza (2000).

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national and state baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data