Hester
Below 5 births
2025 SSA
About Hester
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.
Hester is also given to boys.
Pronounced HES-ter.
As of October 2026, Hester ranked #5020 in US births in 1970 SSA, peaked at #937 in 1900.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank · boys | Births · boys | US rank · girls | Births · girls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
| 2015 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
| 2016 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
| 2017 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
| 2018 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
| 2019 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
| 2020 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
| 2021 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
| 2022 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
| 2023 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
| 2024 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
| 2025 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Hester.
Hester on lists
Famous Hesters
- Hester SantlowGirl
"England's first ballerina"
- Hester GrenvilleGirl
1st Countess Temple, 2nd Viscountess Cobham, mother of Hester Pitt and British PM George Grenville; grandmother of PM William Grenville
- Hester (Grenville) PittGirl
Countess of Chatham, wife of British Prime Minister William Pitt; daughter of Hester Grenville
- Hester StanhopeGirl
Viscountess Mahon, daughter of William and Hester Pitt
- Hester Lucy StanhopeGirl
English traveler and Arabist; daughter of Charles and Hester Stanhope; granddaughter of William and Hester Pitt
- Hester Lynch ThraleGirl
Welsh diarist
- Hester Maria (Thrale) ElphinstoneGirl
Viscountess Keith, English literary correspondent; daughter of Hester Thrale
- Hester BurtonGirl
English children's novelist
- Hester Margaret SainsburyGirl
English artist, dancer and poet
- Hester Maria PeirceGirl
American lawyer and commissioner of the SEC
- Hester Ashmead DavisGirl
American archaeologist
- Hester ChaponeGirl
English author of women's conduct books
Hester in pop culture
- Hester PrynneGirl
main character in "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Hester Collyer/PageGirl
character in Sir Terence Rattigan's 1952 play, The Deep Blue Sea
- Hester ShawGirl
character in Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines series
- HesterGirl
daemon in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy
- Hester FrumpGirl
Morticia's mother on TV's "The Addams Family"
- Hester DethridgeGirl
one of Wilkie Collins' "best half,mad villainesses, homicidal keeper of Anne Silvester in her captivity," in "Man and Wife" (1870)
- Hester Rose (Palmer) CraneGirl
mother of Frasier and Niles on TV's "Cheers" and "Frasier"
- HesterGirl
Sue Terhune, character on TV's 'Little House on the Prairie'
- HesterGirl
character in Soman Chainani's The School for Good and Evil series
- HesterGirl
character in "A woman called Fancy" by Frank Yerby
- Hester LatterlyGirl
character in Anne Perry's William Monk series
- Hester St Clare aka Hassar San KahlarGirl
character in K.A. Barker's "The Book of Days"
- HesterGirl
angel in Erik Kripke's "Supernatural"
- Hester UlrichGirl
character in TV Series "Scream Queens"
- Hester GreyGirl
character in Rumer Godden's " The Greengage Summer"
- Hester GrayGirl
from the Anne of Green Gables series