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
Census
Emmah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 847 people with the first name Emmah, which placed it at #14,029 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
#14,029
National first-name rank
People counted
847
847 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emmah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emmah is White at 67.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.9%) and Black (9.8%). 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 Emmah 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 Emmah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.3% · 570
- Hispanic or Latino15.9% · 135
- Black or African American9.8% · 83
- Two or more races5.1% · 43
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5
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.
How common was Emmah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 847 people with the name Emmah, or 0.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,029 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 Emmah 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 Emmah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emmah appears almost entirely female. Of the 848 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Emmah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emmah is White at 67.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.9%) and Black (9.8%). 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 Emmah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Emmah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.3% (570 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 Emmah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Emmah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emmah 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 Emmah 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 Emmah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.