Emilyn
Variant spelling of Emiliana, a feminine name of Italian origin meaning "work" or "rival".
Name Census estimates that about 1,477 living Americans carry the first name Emilyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Emilyn today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emilyn births was 2012 (96 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emilyn. 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 Emilyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Emilyn is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 232,061 Americans
Peak year
2012
96 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,051
Tracked since 1948
Census
Emilyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,380 people with the first name Emilyn, which placed it at #9,866 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
#9,866
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,380 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emilyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emilyn is White at 58.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.6%). 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 Emilyn 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 Emilyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.4% · 806
- Hispanic or Latino16.9% · 233
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.6% · 229
- Two or more races5.5% · 76
- Black or African American1.6% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 14
Popularity
Emilyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emilyn from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 746 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emilyn 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 Emilyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emilyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Emilyn, while North Carolina, Arizona, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emilyn
The name Emilyn is of English origin, derived from the Germanic root names Amal, meaning "work" or "labor," and the Old English suffix -ine, meaning "little." This combination suggests the meaning "little hard worker" or "little industrious one."
In the Middle Ages, the name Emilyn emerged as a diminutive form of the name Emily, which itself was a variant of the French name Amelie. Emilyn was particularly popular among the English gentry and nobility during the 13th and 14th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Emilyn can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as a surname. The first known person to bear Emilyn as a given name was Emilyn de Montfort, the daughter of a Norman nobleman, born in 1205.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Emilyn. One of the most famous was Emilyn Plantagenet (1288-1349), the daughter of King Edward I of England and Queen Eleanor of Castile. She was a powerful figure in her own right, serving as the Abbess of Amesbury Priory.
Another notable Emilyn was Emilyn Chaucer (1344-1400), the daughter of the renowned English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. She was a skilled embroiderer and is believed to have contributed to the creation of the famous Ellesmere manuscript of her father's works.
In the 16th century, Emilyn Shakespeare (1556-1613) was the eldest daughter of the legendary playwright William Shakespeare. While little is known about her life, she was mentioned in her father's will, receiving a substantial inheritance.
During the English Civil War, Emilyn Fairfax (1612-1674) was a staunch Parliamentarian and the wife of the famous general Thomas Fairfax. She played an active role in the war effort and was a vocal advocate for the rights of women.
In the 18th century, Emilyn Brontë (1778-1825) was the mother of the famous Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. She encouraged their literary pursuits and instilled in them a love of reading and writing from an early age.
It is worth noting that while the name Emilyn has remained relatively uncommon throughout history, it has experienced a resurgence in popularity in recent years, particularly in English-speaking countries.
People
Emilyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emilyn 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
Emilyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emilyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,477 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emilyn 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 232,061 US residents.
Is Emilyn a common name?
We classify Emilyn as "Rare". It ranks above 92.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,500 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emilyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Emilyn was 2012, when 96 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emilyn is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emilyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,380 people with the name Emilyn, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,866 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 Emilyn 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 Emilyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emilyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,376 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 Emilyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emilyn is White at 58.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.6%). 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 Emilyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Emilyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.4% (806 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 Emilyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emilyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Emilyn 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 Emilyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emilyn 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 Emilyn 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 share the name Emilyn?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.