Espen
A boys’ name with no widely documented etymology — two syllables, given to 38 babies a year in the US.
Espen by the numbers
In 2025, 4 babies in England and Wales were named Espen. In the US, 38 were, though that figure is from 2017, the most recent full year we hold.
For the size of the two countries, it is given noticeably more often in the US than in England and Wales.
Its American peak was 37 babies in 2015, making it a 2010s name.
What we can tell you about Espen
Not every name has a meaning to trace. Plenty are coined rather than inherited — invented outright, blended from two names, or respelled from an older one — and where we cannot find an etymology we can stand behind, we would rather say so than make one up. What follows comes from the birth records themselves.
Spelled almost the same
Other names in the records within a letter or two of Espen. Close spellings are not always related names, but they are usually worth seeing together.
Names about as common as Espen
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