Emelie
A feminine name of French origin meaning "industrious" or "hardworking".
Name Census estimates that about 1,902 living Americans carry the first name Emelie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Emelie today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emelie births was 2003 (76 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emelie. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Emelie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 180,207 Americans
Peak year
2003
76 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,483
Tracked since 1880
Census
Emelie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,085 people with the first name Emelie, which placed it at #7,344 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#7,344
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,085 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emelie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emelie is White at 51.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (32.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Emelie described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Emelie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.8% · 1,080
- Hispanic or Latino32.0% · 668
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.8% · 225
- Two or more races2.7% · 57
- Black or African American2.2% · 45
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 10
Popularity
Emelie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emelie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 585 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
Emelie 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 Emelie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emelies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Emelie, while Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 92 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emelie
The given name Emelie is derived from the Germanic root name Amal, which means "work" or "labor." This root name has its origins in ancient Germanic tribes and was a common name among them.
The name Emelie emerged as a variant spelling of the name Emily, which itself is a French form of the Latin name Aemilia. This Latin name was initially derived from the Roman family name Aemilius, which may have been related to the word "aemulus," meaning "rival."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Emelie can be found in the 12th-century poem "Emelie de Champagne" by the French poet Chrétien de Troyes. This work is believed to have popularized the name in medieval Europe.
In the 13th century, a notable bearer of the name was Emelie of Leiningen, a German noblewoman and the wife of Count Henry IV of Zweibrücken. She lived from around 1220 to 1284.
During the Renaissance period, Emelie von Nassau-Dillenburg (1506-1580) was a German noblewoman and the wife of Count Johann VI of Nassau-Dillenburg. She played a significant role in the Protestant Reformation by providing refuge to persecuted Protestants.
In the 17th century, Emelie de Breteuil (1610-1660) was a French noblewoman and the mistress of King Louis XIV of France. She was known for her influence at the French court and her involvement in various political intrigues.
Another notable figure with the name Emelie was Emelie Flygare-Carlén (1807-1892), a Swedish novelist and playwright. She was one of the most popular and influential authors in 19th-century Sweden, known for her realistic portrayals of contemporary life.
In the 20th century, Emelie Warner (1903-1986) was an American actress and dancer. She appeared in various Broadway productions and Hollywood films, including the 1933 movie "Roman Scandals."
People
Emelie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emelie 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
Emelie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emelie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,902 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emelie 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 180,207 US residents.
Is Emelie a common name?
We classify Emelie as "Rare". It ranks above 93.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,587 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emelie most popular?
The single biggest year for Emelie was 2003, when 76 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emelie is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emelie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,085 people with the name Emelie, or 0.69 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,344 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Emelie in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Emelie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emelie appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,085 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Emelie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emelie is White at 51.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (32.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Emelie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Emelie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.8% (1,080 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
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 Emelie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emelie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Emelie 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 Emelie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emelie 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 Emelie 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.
How many people have Emelie as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Emelie, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.