Emelyn
A feminine variant of Emmeline, meaning "industrious" or "hardworking".
Name Census estimates that about 2,533 living Americans carry the first name Emelyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Emelyn today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emelyn births was 2013 (129 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emelyn. 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 Emelyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Emelyn is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.5K
~ 1 in 135,316 Americans
Peak year
2013
129 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,530
Tracked since 1913
Census
Emelyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,466 people with the first name Emelyn, which placed it at #6,491 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
#6,491
National first-name rank
People counted
2.5K
2,466 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
43.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emelyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emelyn is Hispanic at 43.1%. The next largest groups are White (35.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.6%). 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 Emelyn 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 Emelyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino43.1% · 1,063
- White35.6% · 878
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.6% · 410
- Two or more races3.1% · 76
- Black or African American1.3% · 33
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 6
Popularity
Emelyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emelyn from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,080 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Emelyn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emelyn 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 Emelyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emelyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Emelyn, while Washington, Oklahoma, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 56 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emelyn
The name Emelyn is of English origin, derived from the Old English word "amel," which means "strength" or "bravery." The name's popularity can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when it was commonly used among the English nobility and gentry.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Emelyn can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a comprehensive survey of landholdings in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. In this document, the name is spelled "Amelina" and is associated with a landowner in the county of Sussex.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, the name Emelyn gained further prominence with the rise of the Plantagenet dynasty in England. Several notable individuals from this period bore the name, including Emelyn de Lacy (c. 1200 – 1231), who was the wife of Peter de Brus, Lord of Skelton, and Emelyn de Longespee (c. 1235 – 1276), who was the daughter of William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury.
In the realm of literature, the name Emelyn appears in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales," written in the late 14th century. One of the characters, the Wife of Bath, is referred to as "Emelie" in the text, further solidifying the name's usage during the Middle English period.
As the centuries progressed, the name Emelyn continued to be popular among the English aristocracy and gentry. One notable figure was Emelyn Craven (1624 – 1705), an English noblewoman who served as a Maid of Honour to Queen Henrietta Maria of England.
Another significant figure bearing the name Emelyn was Emelyn Story Trist (1783 – 1859), an American author and poet who was active during the early 19th century. Her works, which included poetry and novels, explored themes of love, nature, and the human condition.
In more recent times, the name Emelyn has maintained its presence, although it has been less common than its variants such as Emily or Amelia. One notable individual was Emelyn Williams (1905 – 1987), a Welsh actress and playwright who was known for her work in both theater and film.
People
Emelyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emelyn 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
Emelyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emelyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,533 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emelyn 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 135,316 US residents.
Is Emelyn a common name?
We classify Emelyn as "Rare". It ranks above 94.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,704 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emelyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Emelyn was 2013, when 129 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emelyn is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emelyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,466 people with the name Emelyn, or 0.82 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,491 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 Emelyn 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 Emelyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emelyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,461 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Emelyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emelyn is Hispanic at 43.1%. The next largest groups are White (35.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.6%). 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 Emelyn most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Emelyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.1% (1,063 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 Emelyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emelyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Emelyn 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 Emelyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emelyn 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 Emelyn 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 the name Emelyn?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.