Esau
Esau is a boy's name that peaked in 2007, when it was the 1,781st most popular in the United States. In 2025 it ranked 3,181st. About 2,300 Esaus are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 24.
Popularity, 1880–2025
boys named Esau
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 2,976
- Estimated living today
- 2,300
- Median age today
- 24
- Peak year
- 2007
- Best rank
- 1,781st
- Rank in 2025
- 3,181st
- First recorded
- 1880
How old the living Esaus are
born that year still alive today
Of the 2,976 babies given the name since 1880, about 2,300 are alive — 77 in every hundred. Roughly 760 of them are children and 210 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 2001 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin Hebrew
From Ancient Greek Ἡσαῦ, from Biblical Hebrew עֵשָׂו.
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Esaus
- Esau de' Buondelmonti (1355–1411)Despot of Epirus
People named Esau with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Esau is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Esau is most concentrated in South Carolina (7.2×), California (4.8×), Texas (4.5×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 2007
The most popular boys’ names the year Esau peaked:
Esau among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland boys | Esau | 5 | 7 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Where Esau lives in Spain
Not a count of births but of people: 485 men called Esau were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.
Men: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palencia | Esau | 8 | 0.102 | 636 |
| Palmas, Las | Esau | 52 | 0.089 | 1,000 |
| Santa Cruz de Tenerife | Esau | 44 | 0.083 | 1,050 |
| Huelva | Esau | 19 | 0.071 | 789 |
| Cádiz | Esau | 39 | 0.063 | 684 |
| Segovia | Esau | 5 | 0.063 | 904 |
Listed in 25 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 27 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Related names
Esau against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.