Emile
A masculine French name meaning "industrious, hardworking".
Name Census estimates that about 4,373 living Americans carry the first name Emile. It is a predominantly male name (93.0% of registrations). The average person named Emile today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emile births was 1921 (171 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emile. 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 Emile with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.4K
~ 1 in 78,380 Americans
Peak year
1921
171 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,918
Tracked since 1880
Census
Emile in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,191 people with the first name Emile, which placed it at #3,809 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
#3,809
National first-name rank
People counted
5.2K
5,191 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
57.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emile
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emile is White at 57.3%. The next largest groups are Black (25.5%) and Hispanic (8.6%). 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 Emile 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 Emile at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White57.3% · 2,975
- Black or African American25.5% · 1,323
- Hispanic or Latino8.6% · 447
- Two or more races5.2% · 272
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 155
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 19
Gender
Gender distribution for Emile
Emile leans heavily male at 93.0% of total registrations, but 648 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Emile as a male name
- Ranked #1,918 in 2024
- 82 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1922 (167 births)
Emile as a female name
- Ranked #14,334 in 2018
- 6 female births in 2018
- Peak: 1988 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emile leans strongly male. 4,471 people counted with this name were male (86.1%), compared with 719 female bearers (13.9%).
Popularity
Emile: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emile from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 1,482 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emile 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 Emile during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emiles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. Louisiana, Massachusetts, California recorded the most babies named Emile, while Washington, Maryland, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 243 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emile
The name Emile originated from the Roman family name Aemilius, derived from the Latin word aemulus, meaning "rival". This name was first recorded in ancient Rome and was particularly popular among the aristocratic Aemilian family. The name Aemilius later evolved into the French form Emile during the Middle Ages.
In the 4th century, there was a Roman grammarian named Emilius Asper who wrote a commentary on the works of Virgil. This is one of the earliest documented uses of the name Emilius. During the Middle Ages, Emile became a popular name in France, with many notable individuals bearing this name.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Emile is Saint Emile de Rouen, a 7th-century bishop of Rouen in France. He was known for his charitable works and for founding several monasteries in the region. Another notable figure was Emile Littré (1801-1881), a French philosopher, lexicographer, and translator who is best known for his influential dictionary, the Dictionnaire de la langue française.
In the realm of literature, Emile Zola (1840-1902) was a renowned French novelist and a leading figure in the literary movement of naturalism. His works, such as the Rougon-Macquart cycle, explored the social and moral issues of his time. Another famous writer was Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), a French sociologist who is considered one of the founders of modern sociology.
In the field of science, Emile Borel (1871-1956) was a French mathematician and one of the pioneers of measure theory and probability theory. His contributions to the field of mathematics were widely recognized. Emile Berliner (1851-1929), a German-American inventor, is best known for inventing the flat disc record and the Gramophone, which revolutionized the recording industry.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals who bore the name Emile throughout history, showcasing its enduring popularity and cultural significance across various fields and disciplines.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Emile
People
Emile + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emile 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
Emile: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emile?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,373 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emile 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 78,380 US residents.
Is Emile a common name?
We classify Emile as "Rare". It ranks above 96.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,218 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emile most popular?
The single biggest year for Emile was 1921, when 171 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emile is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emile in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,191 people with the name Emile, or 1.72 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,809 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 Emile 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 Emile?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emile leans strongly male. 4,471 people counted with this name were male (86.1%), compared with 719 female bearers (13.9%). 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 Emile?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emile is White at 57.3%. The next largest groups are Black (25.5%) and Hispanic (8.6%). 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 Emile most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Emile in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.3% (2,975 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 Emile in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emile a male name?
Yes, 93.0% of people registered as Emile in the SSA data are male. 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 Emile still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emile 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 Emile 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 Emile?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.