Emilija
A feminine given name of Latin origin meaning "rival" or "diligent worker".
Name Census estimates that about 286 living Americans carry the first name Emilija. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Emilija today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emilija births was 2023 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emilija. 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 Emilija with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
286
~ 1 in 1,198,442 Americans
Peak year
2023
17 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,080
Tracked since 1989
Census
Emilija in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 414 people with the first name Emilija, which placed it at #23,579 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
#23,579
National first-name rank
People counted
414
414 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
95.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emilija
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emilija is White at 95.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.2%) and Two or More Races (1.4%). 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 Emilija 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 Emilija at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White95.2% · 394
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 9
- Two or more races1.4% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 3
- Black or African American0.2% · 1
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Emilija: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emilija from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 116 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Emilija remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emilija 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 Emilija during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emilijas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Emilija
The given name Emilija originates from the Latin name Aemilia, which was derived from the Roman family name Aemilius. The Aemilii were an ancient patrician family in Rome, and the name is believed to be connected to the Latin word "aemulus," meaning "rival" or "eager."
The name Emilija emerged as a Latinized form of the Germanic name Amelija, which itself was derived from the ancient Germanic name Amal, meaning "work" or "labor." This Germanic root later gave rise to names like Amelia and Emily in various European languages.
In the early Christian era, the name Aemilia was borne by several saints and martyrs, contributing to its popularity among the faithful. One notable example is Saint Aemilia, a Roman martyr who lived in the 3rd century AD. Her feast day is celebrated on June 30th.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Emilija can be found in various historical documents from Central and Eastern Europe, where it was commonly used among Slavic populations. Some notable historical figures named Emilija include:
1. Emilija Plater (1806-1831), a Polish-Lithuanian revolutionary and participant in the November Uprising against the Russian Empire.
2. Emilija Pukštelytė (1811-1898), a Lithuanian writer and educator who authored the first Lithuanian novel, "Piršlybos" (The Matchmaking).
3. Emilija Šukytė (1872-1967), a Lithuanian opera singer and vocal teacher, considered one of the founders of the Lithuanian national opera.
4. Emilija Miščytė (1879-1964), a Lithuanian painter and graphic artist, known for her landscapes and still-life works.
5. Emilija Bužinskaitė-Pažemeckienė (1886-1967), a Lithuanian writer and journalist, active in the Lithuanian independence movement.
While the name Emilija has been used throughout history in various regions, it has been particularly popular in Central and Eastern European countries, where it has maintained a strong connection to its Slavic and Latin roots.
People
Emilija + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emilija 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
Emilija: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emilija?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 286 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emilija 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 1,198,442 US residents.
Is Emilija a common name?
We classify Emilija as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 289 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emilija most popular?
The single biggest year for Emilija was 2023, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emilija is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emilija in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 414 people with the name Emilija, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,579 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 Emilija 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 Emilija?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emilija appears almost entirely female. Of the 414 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Emilija?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emilija is White at 95.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.2%) and Two or More Races (1.4%). 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 Emilija most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Emilija in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.2% (394 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 Emilija in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emilija a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Emilija 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 Emilija still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emilija 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 Emilija 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 Emilija?
Find out how many people share the name Emilija on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.