Emilee
A feminine name of Germanic origin meaning "industrious" or "hard worker".
Name Census estimates that about 23,141 living Americans carry the first name Emilee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Emilee today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emilee births was 2004 (1,025 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emilee. 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 Emilee with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
23K
~ 1 in 14,812 Americans
Peak year
2004
1,025 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2004 SSA rank
#1,694
Tracked since 1916
Census
Emilee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 20,367 people with the first name Emilee, which placed it at #1,582 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
#1,582
National first-name rank
People counted
20K
20,367 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emilee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emilee is White at 82.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.5%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Emilee 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 Emilee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.3% · 16,772
- Hispanic or Latino9.5% · 1,935
- Two or more races4.2% · 846
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 340
- Black or African American1.7% · 337
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 137
Gender
Gender distribution for Emilee
Out of the 23,916 babies given the name Emilee since 1880, 100.0% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Emilee as a male name
- Ranked #8,369 in 2004
- 8 male births in 2004
- Peak: 2004 (8 births)
Emilee as a female name
- Ranked #1,694 in 2024
- 120 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (1,019 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emilee appears almost entirely female. Of the 20,367 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Emilee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emilee from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 8,823 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
Emilee 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 Emilee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emilees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Emilee, while Wyoming, Alaska, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 467 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emilee
Emilee is a feminine given name that originates from the French form of the Germanic name Amalrich or Amalric, which is derived from the elements "amal" meaning "work" and "ric" meaning "power". The earliest recorded use of the name dates back to the 8th century.
The name Emilee is believed to have originated in the Frankish region of modern-day France and Germany. It was initially a masculine name but gradually transitioned into a feminine form over time. The spelling variations include Emelie, Emely, and Emilie.
In medieval times, the name was associated with nobility and strength. Saint Emilie de Vialar, a 19th-century French nun and founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, was a notable figure who bore this name. Another famous Emilee was Emilie du Châtelet, a French mathematician, physicist, and author who lived from 1706 to 1749 and was known for her translation and commentary on Isaac Newton's work.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Emilee can be found in the 13th-century French epic poem "Roman de la Rose" by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. The name also appeared in various literary works throughout the centuries, including plays and novels by renowned authors.
Among the notable historical figures with the name Emilee were Emilie Loring (1889-1951), an American novelist known for her romantic fiction, and Emilie Kempin-Spyri (1853-1901), a Swiss author best known for her children's book "Heidi".
Emilee Clorin Gilmore (1868-1950) was an American author and teacher, while Emilie Flöge (1874-1952) was an Austrian fashion designer and a close companion of the artist Gustav Klimt.
People
Emilee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emilee 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
Emilee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emilee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 23,141 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emilee 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 14,812 US residents.
Is Emilee a common name?
We classify Emilee as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 23,916 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emilee most popular?
The single biggest year for Emilee was 2004, when 1,025 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emilee is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emilee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 20,367 people with the name Emilee, or 6.74 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,582 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 Emilee 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 Emilee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emilee appears almost entirely female. Of the 20,367 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Emilee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emilee is White at 82.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.5%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Emilee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Emilee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.3% (16,772 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 Emilee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emilee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Emilee 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 Emilee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emilee 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 Emilee 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 are named Emilee?
Want to know how many Americans are named Emilee? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.