Emre
A masculine Turkish name meaning "leader" or "commander".
Name Census estimates that about 931 living Americans carry the first name Emre. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Emre today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emre births was 2010 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emre. 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 Emre with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
931
~ 1 in 368,157 Americans
Peak year
2010
43 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,709
Tracked since 1978
Census
Emre in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,335 people with the first name Emre, which placed it at #10,109 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
#10,109
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,335 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emre
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emre is White at 88.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Hispanic (3.0%). 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 Emre 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 Emre at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.8% · 1,185
- Two or more races5.0% · 67
- Hispanic or Latino3.0% · 40
- Black or African American1.6% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Emre
Out of the 943 babies given the name Emre since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Emre as a male name
- Ranked #3,709 in 2024
- 30 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (43 births)
Emre as a female name
- Ranked #15,825 in 2020
- 5 female births in 2020
- Peak: 2020 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emre leans strongly male. 1,296 people counted with this name were male (97.2%), compared with 37 female bearers (2.8%).
Popularity
Emre: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emre from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 328 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Emre remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emre 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 Emre during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emres live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. New York, California, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Emre, while Virginia, Illinois, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 30 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emre
The name Emre is of Turkish origin, derived from the Arabic name Amr, which means "life" or "to live." It is a name with a rich history and cultural significance in the Middle East and Central Asia.
The earliest recorded usage of the name Emre can be traced back to the 13th century, when it was borne by the famous Turkish poet and Sufi mystic, Yunus Emre. Born in the village of Sarıköy, near the city of Eskişehir in modern-day Turkey, Yunus Emre lived from around 1240 to 1320 and is regarded as one of the most influential figures in Turkish literature and Islamic mysticism.
Another notable figure in history who bore the name Emre was Emre Khoja, a 14th-century Sufi teacher and scholar from the Chagatai Khanate (modern-day Central Asia). He played a crucial role in spreading Islam and Sufi teachings throughout the region, and his mausoleum in Yarkand, Xinjiang, China, remains a significant pilgrimage site.
In the 15th century, Emre was the name of a Turkish prince and governor, Emre Bey, who ruled over the Anatolian beylik (principality) of Teke during the latter years of the Ottoman Empire's expansion.
Moving to more modern times, Emre Gönlüşen was a renowned Turkish novelist and playwright who lived from 1923 to 2009. His works explored themes of love, identity, and the human condition, and he is considered one of the most influential writers in contemporary Turkish literature.
Emre Arolat, born in 1963, is a celebrated Turkish architect known for his innovative and sustainable designs. His projects, such as the Sancaklar Mosque in Istanbul and the Yaşar University Building in Izmir, have garnered international acclaim and numerous awards.
These are just a few examples of notable figures throughout history who have borne the name Emre, a name that has maintained its cultural significance and popularity across generations in Turkey and the broader Middle Eastern region.
People
Emre + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emre 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
Emre: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emre?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 931 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emre 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 368,157 US residents.
Is Emre a common name?
We classify Emre as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 943 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emre most popular?
The single biggest year for Emre was 2010, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emre is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emre in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,335 people with the name Emre, or 0.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,109 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 Emre 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 Emre?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emre leans strongly male. 1,296 people counted with this name were male (97.2%), compared with 37 female bearers (2.8%). 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 Emre?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emre is White at 88.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Hispanic (3.0%). 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 Emre most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Emre in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.8% (1,185 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 Emre in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emre a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Emre in the SSA data are male. 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 Emre still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emre 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 Emre 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 Emre?
Want to know how many people have the name Emre? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.