Emelia
A feminine name of German origin meaning "industrious" or "striving".
Name Census estimates that about 11,485 living Americans carry the first name Emelia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Emelia today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emelia births was 2019 (701 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emelia. 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
- • Emelia is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
11K
~ 1 in 29,844 Americans
Peak year
2019
701 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#573
Tracked since 1880
Popularity
Emelia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emelia from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 4,988 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Emelia remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emelia 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 Emelia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emelias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Emelia, while Vermont, Alaska, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 197 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emelia
The name Emelia is derived from the Germanic root "amal", meaning "work" or "labor". It is a feminine form of the male name Emil, which has its origins in the Latin name Aemilius. The name Emelia first emerged in the regions of ancient Rome and the German territories during the medieval period.
In ancient Rome, the name Aemilius was a prominent family name associated with the gens Aemilia, one of the oldest and most illustrious patrician families of the Roman Republic. The Aemilii gens produced several notable figures, including the Roman poet Quintus Ennius (239-169 BC), considered the father of Roman poetry.
As the Roman Empire expanded, the name spread throughout Europe and evolved into various forms, including Emelia. During the Middle Ages, the name gained popularity in Germanic regions, where it was adopted and adapted to local linguistic patterns.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Emelia dates back to the 12th century, when it appeared in medieval German records. Over the centuries, the name has been borne by several notable figures, including:
1. Emelia Pardo Bazán (1851-1921), a Spanish novelist, journalist, and literary critic known for her advocacy of women's rights and her pioneering work in introducing naturalism to Spanish literature.
2. Emelia Bassano Lanier (1569-1645), an English Renaissance poet and the first professional woman writer in English literature. She is also believed by some scholars to be the "Dark Lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets.
3. Emelia Holden Rodat (1892-1980), an American educator and civil rights activist who played a significant role in desegregating public schools in Washington D.C. in the 1950s.
4. Emelia Russell Gurley (1809-1855), an American educator and activist who founded the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, one of the earliest institutions of higher education for women in the United States.
5. Emelia Jenks (1743-1826), an American Revolutionary War heroine known for her bravery in defending her home from British soldiers during the Battle of Ridgefield in 1777.
Throughout its history, the name Emelia has been associated with strength, resilience, and a dedication to labor and hard work, reflecting its Germanic roots. It has been embraced by individuals from diverse cultural and historical backgrounds, each leaving their mark on the name's rich legacy.
People
Emelia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emelia 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
Emelia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emelia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11,485 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emelia 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 29,844 US residents.
Is Emelia a common name?
We classify Emelia as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 13,537 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emelia most popular?
The single biggest year for Emelia was 2019, when 701 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emelia is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Emelia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Emelia 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.
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.