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Esther is a Biblical name made famous by a prominent female figure whose story is told in eponymous Book of Esther.
According to her story, the King of Persia, Ahasuerus, had deposed his queen Vashti because she refused, during a festival, to parade herself in front of his male guests when he commanded (something that would have been very shaming for her). In search of a new wife, many beautiful maidens were then brought before the king in order that he might choose between them. He selected Hadassah as by far the most lovely, and she became queen.
Hadassah was an orphaned Jewish girl who lived under the protection of her cousin Mordecai. When she became a candidate to be the king's wife, she was advised by Mordecai to keep her Jewish identity a secret, and so adopted the Persian name of Esther.
To cut a much longer story short, when Mordecai hears of a plot by the grand vizier Haman to kill all the Jews in Persia, Esther is compelled to reveal her Jewish heritage to the king, risking her life, but manages to save the day when her husband listens to her pleas and the Jewish people are saved. This event is commemorated in the Jewish festival of Purim.
The etymology of Esther is disputed and uncertain, but it has, for centuries, been regarded as deriving from the Proto-Indo-European word *h₂stḗr- "star." Esther has also been linked to the Hebrew word sether meaning "a covering, hiding place, secrecy"* but this is most likely a meaning attributed to her thanks to her identity being "hidden" in the story.* Her Hebrew name Hadassah, like Esther, has also been linked to the Hebrew verb lehastir "to hide."
A more convincing theory for Hadassah, however, is that it means "myrtle" (from the Hebrew word hadas "myrtle tree"*) and one theory suggests that Esther derives from the Median word astra "myrtle."
Many scholars now argue, however, that Esther's name derives from that of the great Akkadian goddess Ishtar.
Ishtar was the Akkadian goddess of love, beauty, fertility, war, combat and political power and was equated with the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Her symbols were the lion and an eight-pointed star which represented (the planet) Venus (so the idea that Esther means star should not be immediately dismissed). She became the most powerful and highest goddess of the Assyrian pantheon and was widely venerated across Ancient Mesopotamia.
This girl was certainly not to be messed with, as Bettany Hughes illustrates in her documentary Venus Uncovered:
It is often pointed out how similar the names Esther and Mordecai are to Ishtar and Marduk - a Mesopotamian god who was the patron deity of the city of Babylon. Mordecai is regarded as a Hebraized form of Marduka, an Akkadian name meaning "man (servent/devotee) of Marduk."
Theophoric names were incredibly common in Ancient Mesopotamia so it is highly likely that diasporic Jews would adopt one of these names. The Book of Daniel contains similar accounts of Jews living in exile in Babylonia being assigned theophoric Semitic names. Daniel was renamed Belteshazzar ("Ba'al protect the king"), Hananiah became Shadrach ("command of Aku"), Mishael is Meshach ("who is what Aku is?") and Azariah was changed to Abednego ("servant of Nebo").
There are those that have gone even further and argue that Esther and Mordecai are Ishtar and Marduk***** — that essentially the Book of Esther is adapted from Mesopotamian mythology. Haman is linked to the god Humman and Vashti to the goddess Mashti.
Most Biblical and Jewish scholars alike doubt the Book of Esther's historical veracity. As Hebrew Bible Professor Sidnie White Crawford points out: "The message of the Book of Esther, a work of historical fiction written in the diaspora in the late Persian-early Hellenistic period (fourth century b.c.e.), gives encouragement to the exiled Jews that they, although powerless in the Persian Empire, can, by their resourcefulness and talents, not only survive but prosper, as does Esther."* Similarly, the Jewish Encyclopedia says: "In view of all the evidence the authority of the Book of Esther as a historical record must be definitely rejected.[...] The object of Esther is undoubtedly to give an explanation of and to exalt the Feast of Purim, of whose real origin little or nothing is known."*
So, if Esther's story is allegorical, could the names used not have been adapted from earlier Mesopotamian myths with similar themes?
Whether Esther represents a common theophoric name related to Ishtar that was in use, or is actually an adaptation of the goddess's name itself, the evidence for a link between Esther and Ishtar is very compelling.
The meaning of the name Ishtar itself is unclear. Being such a truly ancient name, it's origins are lost to us through the mists of time. However, theories abound, from a connection to the Germanic Spring goddess Eostre or that she shares the same origin as the ancient Semitic god Attar who, like Ishtar, was associated with war and storms and was connected to fertility as the bringer of rain.
Intriguingly (and, for me, this is the most compelling connection) Ishtar was associated closely with the planet Venus. Venus was known to ancient civilizations both as the "morning star" and as the "evening star" and this may explain Ishtar's dual aspect as the goddess of both fertility and war.
Similarly, Attar served the same function. As Paul Collins states in The Sumerian Goddess Inanna (3400-2200 BC): "The name of the goddess Eshtar (later Ishtar) occurs as elements in both Presargonic and Sargonic personal names. It has been suggested that Eshtar derives from a form of 'Attar, a male deity known from Ugaritic and South Arabian inscriptions [...] The corresponding female forms are 'Attart/'Ashtart. The two names may have designated the planet Venus under its aspect of a male morning star (' Attar) and a female evening star (' Attart). This would apparently account for the dual personality of Ishtar as a goddess of love (female) and of war (male). In Mesopotamia the masculine form took over the functions of the female and a goddess developed contrary to its grammatical gender; perhaps under influence from Sumerian Inanna who may have possessed similar attributes." [p110-111].
So Ishtar's (and therefore Esther's) etymology may be tied to Venus as the morning and evening star, of which the Proto-Indo-European word *h₂stḗr- "star" may also be linked.*
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