Variant of Esmé, from Old French meaning 'esteemed' or 'beloved,' introduced to Britain via Scotland.
Esmay is an archaic and endearing variant of Esmé — a name whose origins are debated with the pleasant inconclusiveness that makes etymology delightful. The most widely accepted derivation comes from the Old French "esmer" and its past participle "esmé," meaning "esteemed" or "beloved." Others trace it to the Spanish "Esmeralda" (emerald), suggesting the name carries a gemstone's cool green light somewhere in its ancestry.
It arrived in Scotland through the French-speaking Stuart court — Esmé Stuart, 1st Duke of Lennox and intimate of King James VI, is among the earliest prominent bearers — giving the name an aristocratic Scottish pedigree that has never entirely faded. D. Salinger's 1950 short story "For Esmé — with Love and Squalor," in which a young English girl of uncommon poise and tenderness befriends an American soldier before D-Day.
Salinger's Esmé is intelligent, grieving, and achingly dignified — a portrait that lent the name a quality of quiet, old-soul grace in the literary imagination. The name also appeared in the Lemony Snicket series as Esmé Squalor, a villain of theatrical flamboyance — demonstrating the name's range from dignity to decadence. Esmay, with its distinctive final -ay, is the oldest attested spelling and gives the name a slightly more rugged, medieval feel compared to the acute-accented Esmé.
It has been quietly reviving alongside the broader appetite for Victorian and Edwardian-era names that feel warm rather than stiff. For parents who want something genuinely rare but historically rooted, Esmay offers centuries of quiet elegance without a moment of mass-market exposure.