![]() La Petite Esméralda by William Adolphe Bouguereau | |
Gender | Feminine |
---|---|
Origin | |
Word/name | Portuguese, Spanish |
Meaning | emerald |
Region of origin | Spain, Portugal |
Other names | |
Nickname(s) | Lala, Esme, Esmee |
Related names | Emerald, Esméralda |
Esmeralda is a feminine given name of Portuguese and Spanish origin meaning emerald. The name was used for a Roma character in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, an 1831 novel by Victor Hugo that has been dramatized on film and screen and also brought the name to the attention of people in the English-speaking world.[1][2] Esméralda is a French version of the name.
The name has consistently ranked among the top 100 names for girls in Mexico over the last century and is also well-used for girls in Spain.[3][4] The name has ranked among the top 1,000 names for girls in the United States, a country with a sizable population of Spanish speakers, since 1951 and among the top 500 names since 1973. The name was at its most popular for American girls in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when it was ranked among the top 200 names for girls.[5] Its popularity coincided with the release of the 1996 Disney film The Hunchback of Notre Dame.