Emmah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "universal" or "complete".
Name Census estimates that about 940 living Americans carry the first name Emmah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Emmah today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emmah births was 2008 (78 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emmah. 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.
People living today
940
~ 1 in 364,632 Americans
Peak year
2008
78 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,363
Tracked since 1998
Popularity
Emmah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emmah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 455 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
Emmah 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 Emmah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emmahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Emmah, while Pennsylvania, Missouri, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emmah
The name Emmah is a variant spelling of the name Emma, which has its origins in the Germanic languages. It is derived from the Germanic word "ermen," meaning "whole" or "universal." The name was initially popularized in the medieval period, particularly in regions where Germanic languages were spoken, such as England, Germany, and the Netherlands.
One of the earliest known historical references to the name Emma can be found in the Domesday Book, a record of land ownership in England compiled in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. The book mentions several individuals bearing the name, including Emma de Port, who held lands in Essex.
In the 12th century, Emma was the name of an influential English noblewoman, Emma of Normandy (c. 984-1052). She was the wife of two successive kings of England, Ethelred the Unready and Cnut the Great, and played a significant role in the political affairs of her time.
Another notable historical figure with the name Emma was Emma of Lesum (c. 980-1038), a German noblewoman and abbess who founded the Benedictine convent of Lesum near Bremen. She was highly regarded for her piety and charitable works.
In the realm of literature, Emma is the title character of Jane Austen's novel "Emma," published in 1815. The novel's protagonist, Emma Woodhouse, is a wealthy and privileged young woman who takes pleasure in matchmaking but eventually learns valuable lessons about love and self-knowledge.
One of the most famous Emmas in modern history was Emma Goldman (1869-1940), a Russian-born anarchist and feminist who played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in the United States and Europe.
Other notable individuals named Emma include Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), an American poet best known for her sonnet "The New Colossus," which is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty; Emma Thompson (born 1959), a British actress and screenwriter who won an Academy Award for her adaptation of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility"; and Emma Watson (born 1990), a British actress and activist who rose to fame for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series.
People
Emmah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emmah 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
Emmah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emmah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 940 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emmah 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 364,632 US residents.
Is Emmah a common name?
We classify Emmah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 951 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emmah most popular?
The single biggest year for Emmah was 2008, when 78 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emmah is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Emmah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Emmah 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.
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.