I think that could definitely be it. We pick up more French than we realize just from years of seeing the French printed next to the English.
If it helps at all, in Ontario, in 2016, there were 27 girls named
Esme born, 12 girls named
Esmé, and 11 girls named
Esmée. In Québec, the stats are similar, except Esmée/Esmee has 13 and Esmé/Esme has 10. So, I think it's unusual enough that any of the spellings could work.
♥ Samantha + Evangelos est. 19.02.17 ♥