Since Purim begins on Saturday night, 11 March, it’s only right to do a post about the name Esther. Queen Esther is the shero of the Purim story, and risked her life to save her people. I chose Esther as one of my Hebrew names in her honor.
Though Esther is a very common, popular Hebrew name, it’s actually of Persian origin, possibly meaning “star.” It may also be derived from Ishtar, the Babylonian and Assyrian mother goddess. The Hebrew form of the name is Hadassah, which means “myrtle.”
Esther is used in English, French, German, Dutch, the Scandinavian languages, Spanish, and Hebrew. Other forms are:
1. Ester is Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Scandinavian, Icelandic, Czech, Catalan, Persian, and Finnish. The alternate form Estèr is Jèrriais, a form of Norman (a Romance language) spoken on the islands of Jersey and Sark, part of the Channel Islands between France and England.
2. Eszter is Hungarian. The base nickname form is Eszti.
3. Yesfir is Russian. Though I’ve been a passionate Russophile for over 24 years now, this is one of those names I’m not exactly wild about!
4. Esteri is Finnish. The nickname form is Essi.
5. Estera is Polish, Slovak, Romanian, and Lithuanian. One of the Polish nicknames is Estusia (Eh-STUH-shah). This name is particularly precious to me because it was the name of one of the sheroes who enabled the Sonderkommando revolt in Auschwitz on 7 October 1944. For over a year, these brave women smuggled gunpowder to the men. Sadly, four of them (Estera Wajcblum, Róża Robota, Regina Safirsztajn, and Ala Gertner) were eventually implicated, but they bravely refused to name names under torture. They were publicly hanged on 5 January 1945.
6. Hester is Latin and English.
7. Aster is Ladino (Judeo–Spanish), Judeo–Catalan, and Judeo–Latin.
8. Eistir is Medieval Irish. It was traditionally given to girls born around Easter.
9. Esiteri is Fijian.
10. Êrsta is Greenlandic.
11. Estè is Haitian Creole. This is a rare name.
12. Estere is Latvian.
13. Esthir is Greek.
14. Estir is Macedonian, Bulgarian, and a rare Greek form.
15. Etke is Yiddish.
16. Ezter is Ladino.
17. Esthera is a rare, elaborated form of Esther.
18. Esterina is an Italian and Portuguese elaboration of Ester.
19. Esfir is an alternate Russian form. I’m not wild about this one either.
20. Îsta is another Greenlandic form.
21. Eseza is Lugandan, a Bantu language spoken in Uganda.
22. Jestira is Serbian.
Onomastics Outside the Box 