What does the name Esther mean?

What the name “Esther” means in Persian

Queen Esther from the Bible wasn’t really called “Esther” — or was she? Well, firstly, yes, we know she had two names: a Hebrew one, Hadassah, and a Persian one, Esther. But the way we pronounce the Persian one, “Esther,” (es-ter) is most likely the Hebraicized version of the original Persian. So what was her real name in Persian? And what does the name “Esther” mean?

Well, we’ve got to back it up a bit. A LOT a bit. Let’s go back to the first language ever spoken – PIE. 

PIE stands for “Proto Indo European.” It’s thought to have been spoken in like 5,000 BCE, so there aren’t any hard records of it. But we do have lots of research that points toward it. Anyway, PIE had this root, *ster, which meant “star.” This root gave us lots of cool words in English, like “aster,” “asterisk,” “asteroid,” and more.

But it also made its way into Persian. In fact, the Persian word for star is “setareh.” Same name, different vowels. And there’s a chance that either “Esther” comes from, or is a cognate of, “setareh” — or that this was the real pronunciation of her name! 💫

Fun thought: That means that the Anglicized version of “Esther” is “Astrid”.

Meanwhile, some believe that Esther’s true Persian name was actually “Ishtar,” after the Mesopotamian goddess — or that her name at least derives from it.

What the name “Esther” means in Hebrew

There’s also some debate about whether “Esther” is actually Persian — or if it really comes from Hebrew. Some Hebrew scholars believe the name “Esther” comes from the Hebrew root “s.t.r,” (ס.ת.ר) which means “to hide, conceal.” They believe she was called this since she was hiding her Jewish identity. 

But, I don’t know, if you were hiding your identity to save your life, would you give yourself the pseudonym Hidden? Kind of defeats the purpose if you ask me.

Hi, nice to meet you! I’m Hidden Concealed Person Who Is Definitely NOT Hiding A Secret Identity. Nothing strange about me, haha! I’m just like you! 

What the name “Mordecai” means

And Mordecai, her relative?

His name probably came from “Marduk”, which was the name of a Babylonian god. This would make a lot of sense if Esther was indeed named after the goddess Ishtar.

Now that we know all of that, don’t you think “Megillat Esther” or “The Book of Esther” is such a boring name? What if we called it instead: The Royal Adventures of Astrid & Marduk in Ancient Persia??? Anyone??

Bonus

And on the topic of Persian queens — if you wore a tiara at your wedding, you should know that this piece of jewelry actually originated in ancient Persia!

The tiara is originally an ancient royal Persian headdress that was so beautiful that it ended up being adopted by other cultures and royal families. Read more about Persian tiaras here, and about the history of tiaras in general here.