Emilie
A feminine name of French origin meaning "hard worker" or "industrious".
Name Census estimates that about 19,811 living Americans carry the first name Emilie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Emilie today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emilie births was 2003 (660 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emilie. 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 Emilie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
20K
~ 1 in 17,301 Americans
Peak year
2003
660 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
1989 SSA rank
#1,387
Tracked since 1880
Census
Emilie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 20,482 people with the first name Emilie, which placed it at #1,577 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
#1,577
National first-name rank
People counted
20K
20,482 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emilie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emilie is White at 77.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.5%). 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 Emilie 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 Emilie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.4% · 15,843
- Hispanic or Latino11.1% · 2,280
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.5% · 926
- Two or more races3.6% · 738
- Black or African American3.0% · 619
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 76
Gender
Gender distribution for Emilie
Out of the 26,489 babies given the name Emilie 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.
Emilie as a male name
- Ranked #6,424 in 1989
- 7 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1989 (7 births)
Emilie as a female name
- Ranked #1,387 in 2024
- 162 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (660 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emilie appears almost entirely female. Of the 20,479 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Emilie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emilie 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 5,742 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
Emilie 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 Emilie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emilies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Emilie, while Vermont, North Dakota, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 421 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emilie
The name Emilie has its roots in the Latin language and can be traced back to ancient Roman times. It is derived from the Latin word "aemulus," which means "rival" or "emulating." The name was initially used as a feminine form of the masculine name Aemilius, which was a prominent Roman family name.
In the early centuries of Christianity, the name Emilie gained popularity among believers who associated it with the concept of emulating the virtues of saints and religious figures. It was often given to girls with the hope that they would emulate the piety and devotion of revered individuals in the faith.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Emilie can be found in the writings of the 4th-century Christian scholar and philosopher, St. Augustine of Hippo. He mentions an Emilie in his work "De Civitate Dei" (The City of God), though the context is unclear.
Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance period, the name Emilie became more widespread across Europe, particularly in France, where it was favored among the nobility and upper classes. Several notable figures bore the name Emilie during this time, including Emilie de Breteuil (1556-1635), a French noblewoman and writer.
In the 17th century, Emilie du Châtelet (1706-1749), a French mathematician and physicist, made significant contributions to the advancement of science. Her work on the concept of energy and her translation of Isaac Newton's "Principia Mathematica" into French earned her lasting recognition in the scientific community.
The 19th century saw the rise of several influential women named Emilie, including Emilie Flygare-Carlén (1807-1892), a Swedish novelist and playwright who was one of the most popular authors of her time. Emilie Kempin-Spyri (1853-1901), a Swiss children's author, is best known for her enduring classic "Heidi."
In the realm of art, Emilie Loring (1869-1951) was an American artist and author who achieved great success with her romantic novels, which often depicted idealized New England settings. Emilie Flöge (1874-1952), an Austrian fashion designer and businesswoman, was a close companion and muse to the famous painter Gustav Klimt.
These are just a few examples of notable figures throughout history who bore the name Emilie, a name that has endured for centuries and carries a rich heritage rooted in ancient Latin origins and the concept of emulating virtuous qualities.
People
Emilie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emilie 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
Emilie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emilie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 19,811 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emilie 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 17,301 US residents.
Is Emilie a common name?
We classify Emilie as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 26,489 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emilie most popular?
The single biggest year for Emilie was 2003, when 660 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emilie is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emilie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 20,482 people with the name Emilie, or 6.78 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,577 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 Emilie 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 Emilie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emilie appears almost entirely female. Of the 20,479 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 Emilie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emilie is White at 77.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.5%). 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 Emilie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Emilie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.4% (15,843 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 Emilie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emilie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Emilie 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 Emilie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emilie 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 Emilie 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 Americans are named Emilie?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Emilie at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.