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.

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.

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.