Emogene
A feminine given name meaning "industrious" or "hard worker".
Name Census estimates that about 618 living Americans carry the first name Emogene. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Emogene today is around 80 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emogene births was 1927 (277 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emogene. 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 Emogene with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Emogene is about 80 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Emogenes were born before 1956.
People living today
618
~ 1 in 554,619 Americans
Peak year
1927
277 babies that year
Average age
80
years old
2020 SSA rank
#13,949
Tracked since 1886
Census
Emogene in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,174 people with the first name Emogene, which placed it at #11,075 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
#11,075
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,174 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emogene
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emogene is White at 76.7%. The next largest groups are Black (17.7%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Emogene 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 Emogene at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.7% · 900
- Black or African American17.7% · 208
- Two or more races2.2% · 26
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 9
Popularity
Emogene: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emogene from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 2,032 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emogene 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 Emogene during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emogenes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 25 states and territories. Kentucky, West Virginia, Arkansas recorded the most babies named Emogene, while Nebraska, Minnesota, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 123 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emogene
The name Emogene is an English given name that emerged in the late 19th century. It is a combination of the English words "emo," meaning emotion or feeling, and "gene," derived from the Greek word "genos," meaning race or kind. The name was likely created to convey a sense of emotional depth or sensitivity.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Emogene dates back to 1880 in the United States. It gained some popularity in the early 20th century, particularly in the southern states of the country. The name was often given to girls born into families with literary or artistic inclinations, reflecting the romantic and expressive connotations of the name.
Emogene has been the name of several notable individuals throughout history. One of the earliest was Emogene Boxill (1892-1962), an American educator and civil rights activist who fought for equal educational opportunities for African American students in North Carolina. Another notable figure was Emogene Cupp (1905-1998), an American singer and vaudeville performer who was a popular radio personality during the 1930s.
In the literary world, Emogene Redmon (1908-1996) was an American poet and writer whose works often explored themes of nature and the American South. Emogene Curfman (1914-2008) was an American artist known for her vibrant paintings of landscapes and still lifes.
More recently, Emogene Bevitt (1924-2004) was a British actress best known for her roles in television series such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale Farm. She had a long and successful career on stage and screen, spanning several decades.
While the name Emogene experienced a decline in popularity in the latter half of the 20th century, it has maintained a unique charm and continues to be used by families seeking a distinctive and meaningful name for their daughters.
People
Emogene + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emogene 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
Emogene: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emogene?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 618 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emogene 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 554,619 US residents.
Is Emogene a common name?
We classify Emogene as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,871 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emogene most popular?
The single biggest year for Emogene was 1927, when 277 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emogene is about 80 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emogene in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,174 people with the name Emogene, or 0.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,075 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 Emogene 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 Emogene?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emogene appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,175 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 Emogene?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emogene is White at 76.7%. The next largest groups are Black (17.7%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Emogene most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Emogene in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.7% (900 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 Emogene in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emogene a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Emogene 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 Emogene still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emogene 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 Emogene 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 Emogene?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.