Emaley
A feminine name of French origin meaning "industrious and hardworking".
Name Census estimates that about 67 living Americans carry the first name Emaley. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Emaley today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emaley births was 2004 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emaley. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Emaley. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
67
~ 1 in 5,115,736 Americans
Peak year
2004
10 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2012 SSA rank
#17,661
Tracked since 1999
Popularity
Emaley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emaley from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 51 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emaley by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Emaley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emaley
The name Emaley has its origins in the Old English language and can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon period, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD. It is derived from the Old English words "eme," meaning "aunt" or "maternal uncle," and "ley," meaning "meadow" or "field." The combination of these words suggests that the name Emaley may have originally been a descriptive name given to someone who lived in a meadow or field owned by their aunt or maternal uncle.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Emaley can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of the great survey of England completed in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror. The Domesday Book includes several entries for people with variations of the name, such as Emelina and Emelot, indicating that the name was in use during the late 11th century.
In the 12th century, a notable bearer of the name Emaley was Emaley de Ridefort, a noblewoman from Gloucestershire, England, who lived during the reign of King Henry II. Records show that she was granted land and property rights in the area, suggesting her family's status and influence at the time.
During the 13th century, the name Emaley appeared in several medieval literary works, including the Middle English romance "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." In this poem, a character named Emaley is mentioned as a lady of the court, indicating that the name was associated with nobility and courtly life.
In the 15th century, a woman named Emaley Boteler was recorded as a prominent landowner and benefactor in the county of Warwickshire, England. She was known for her charitable contributions to local churches and monasteries, demonstrating the name's association with wealth and philanthropy during that period.
Another notable bearer of the name Emaley was Emaley Wyndham, who lived in the 16th century and was the wife of Sir John Wyndham, a member of the English gentry. Their family was influential in the county of Somerset, and Emaley played a significant role in managing their estates and properties.
While the name Emaley has become relatively uncommon in modern times, it has a rich history and associations with the English countryside, nobility, and literary traditions of the Middle Ages.
People
Emaley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emaley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Emaley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emaley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 67 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emaley going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 5,115,736 US residents.
Is Emaley a common name?
We classify Emaley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 58.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 68 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emaley most popular?
The single biggest year for Emaley was 2004, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emaley is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Emaley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emaley a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Emaley in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Emaley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emaley in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Emaley can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people are named Emaley?
Want to know how many people have the name Emaley? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.