Emilia
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "striving" or "labor".
Roughly 59,581 people in the United States go by the first name Emilia, which ranks #43 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Emilia today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emilia births was 2021 (4,851 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Willow (59,457).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emilia. 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 Emilia with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Emilia is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
60K
~ 1 in 5,753 Americans
Peak year
2021
4,851 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#43
Tracked since 1880
Census
Emilia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 47,577 people with the first name Emilia, which placed it at #936 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
#936
National first-name rank
People counted
48K
47,577 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
15.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
45.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emilia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emilia is Hispanic at 45.8%. The next largest groups are White (44.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.9%). 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 Emilia 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 Emilia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino45.8% · 21,798
- White44.8% · 21,293
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.9% · 1,838
- Two or more races3.5% · 1,672
- Black or African American1.8% · 848
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 128
Gender
Gender distribution for Emilia
Out of the 64,407 babies given the name Emilia since 1880, 99.9% 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.
Emilia as a male name
- Ranked #10,162 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (9 births)
Emilia as a female name
- Ranked #43 in 2024
- 4,634 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (4,851 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emilia appears almost entirely female. Of the 47,586 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Emilia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emilia 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 24,356 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emilia 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 Emilia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emilias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Emilia, while Wyoming, Vermont, South Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,183 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emilia
The name Emilia has its roots in the Latin language and culture. It is derived from the Roman family name Aemilius, which is believed to have originated from the Latin word "aemulus," meaning "rival" or "striving." This connection suggests that the name may have been associated with ambition, competition, or striving for excellence.
Emilia was a relatively common name among ancient Romans, particularly within the Aemilian family, one of the most illustrious patrician clans in ancient Rome. Notable historical figures with this name include Emilia Lepida, the wife of the Roman general and statesman Scipio Africanus, and Emilia Tertia, the wife of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.
The name gained popularity during the Renaissance period, particularly in Italy, where it was often associated with culture, arts, and intellectual pursuits. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Emilia can be found in Dante Alighieri's famous literary work, the Divine Comedy, where he mentions an Emilia as one of the virtuous pagan souls in Limbo.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Emilia. One of the most prominent is Emilia Pardo Bazán (1851-1921), a Spanish novelist, journalist, and feminist who played a significant role in introducing naturalism to Spanish literature. Another notable figure is Emilia Plater (1806-1831), a Polish revolutionary and leading figure in the November Uprising against the Russian Empire.
Emilia Galotti (1722-1770) was a German writer and playwright known for her tragedy of the same name, which explored themes of virtue, honor, and social inequality. Emilia Bassano Lanier (1569-1645) was an English writer and poet, often considered as the first professional woman writer in England.
Emilia Pardo Bazán, Emilia Plater, Emilia Galotti, and Emilia Bassano Lanier are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Emilia, a name that has been associated with ambition, intellectual pursuits, and cultural significance.
People
Emilia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emilia 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
Emilia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emilia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 59,581 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emilia 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 5,753 US residents.
Is Emilia a common name?
We classify Emilia as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 64,407 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emilia most popular?
The single biggest year for Emilia was 2021, when 4,851 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emilia is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emilia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 47,577 people with the name Emilia, or 15.75 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #936 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 Emilia 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 Emilia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emilia appears almost entirely female. Of the 47,586 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Emilia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emilia is Hispanic at 45.8%. The next largest groups are White (44.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.9%). 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 Emilia most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Emilia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.8% (21,798 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 Emilia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emilia a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Emilia 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 Emilia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emilia 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 Emilia 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 called Emilia?
You can see how many people have the name Emilia on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.