The name was recorded by Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta on May 18, 1832, at Soledad Mission from his informant Eusebio (native name Sutasis) (cf.

Although it was spoken by many of the early converts at Mission Carmel, its use rapidly declined during the Hispanic period.

About 350 words and phrases and a few complete sentences have been preserved in literature,[2] including a short bilingual catechism (for a summary see Mithun 1999:411–413 and Golla 2011:114).

By the beginning of the 20th century the only data on Esselen that investigators such as Kroeber and Harrington could collect were a few words remembered by speakers of other Indian languages in the area.

[citation needed] H. W. Henshaw thought that Esselen represented a monotypic linguistic family.

[4] Breschini and Haversat (1994: 82–88) give the following numbers of villages and population estimates for each of the five Esselen tribes.